For simple cases like this, TimeUnit should be used. TimeUnit usage is a bit more explicit about what is being represented and is also much easier to read and write when compared to doing all of the arithmetic calculations explicitly. For example, to calculate the number days from milliseconds, the following statement would work:
long days = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(milliseconds);
For cases more advanced, where more finely grained durations need to be represented in the context of working with time, an all encompassing and modern date/time API should be used. For JDK8+, java.time is now included (here are the tutorials and javadocs). For earlier versions of Java joda-time is a solid alternative.