The lighter Milgauss has the same color, it’s not funny. But it has the right proportions. Neutral colors dominate the canvas, with brighter shades as accents and black as a border. But still, there’s a lot of excitement. When the second hand is a bolt of lightning, you don’t need to do much else.
I love the white dial, almost across the board. I like the Omega Speedmaster “White Face of the Moon” and the replica Rolex Explorer II, a pair of cream dials that, in my opinion, outshine their black counterparts. White dial watches are as underrated as vanilla ice cream. There are so many sexier options in the world that they are easy to overlook – and when the white Milgauss came out, many did! Perhaps, for this reason, the unloved watch was mercilessly discontinued in less than a decade, eliminated from the squidgy game of watchmaking. The black dial variant has stuck around until today, with the addition of a blue variant, both of which now have green crystals that, to me, look like melted Heineken beer bottles.
Then, shockingly, the black one goes a step further and adds silver to the mix. Take a look at these hour markers. Nine of them are white and three are orange, but somehow it’s different from the orange on the second hand and minutes. The former is orange and the latter is apricot. The whole thing is an attack on innocent fruit.
I’ll take the white watch, please. The one with the hour markers looks like peach chocolate. That watch can be worn on a steel bracelet or a fabric strap – in fact, it might be better on a strap.
The point is, you have options. And for a watch like this, versatility is important. If it’s a Lange formal watch with a star dial, then fine – wear it only to black-tie parties. This is another case of a watch that can be worn almost every day. Half a century ago, it was used as an anti-magnetic tool for scientists. That’s fine. But unless you’re the kind of person who walks around in magnetic fields all day, that’s not what you wear it for. You wear it to look good, which is why this dial debate actually matters – or at least as much as any friendly Internet debate about luxury replica watches.
Thousands of your own dollars could be at stake here, so you’d better make the right decision. My advice, as someone who doesn’t know you and will probably never see you, is to trust my taste over Danny’s and get the white one. Now that it’s discontinued, it’s only getting more collectible. Some collectors, technically correct but morally wrong, will argue that the black and orange ones have become classic models and are the base standard for future Milgausses, and they will steer you away from the white ones. Very well. Whenever they do, it means one more is available to the rest of us.