the blind pig finding an acorn situation. I just happened to drop in at the local vintage dealer. In real life, this one is 9+ condition. thanks for looking.
Produced for the American railroad market, these are pretty rare to come by. nice little watch in great condition. congrats to a lovely find.
I've had the poor sense of calling out one of these as fake (I was wrong). But can someone please explain to me why the case and dial design looks nothing like other Railmasters? The case doesn't even look like an Omega design.
I might have an answer about the dial but not the case. When the regulations for an acceptable railroad grade watch in the USA were compiled, it stated the dial must have black Arabic numerals on a white background. And I would presume that carried over to wrist watches when they started being accepted for railroad service .But this would only be a guess since I don't know if any Omegas were actually tested or approved for US railroad service.
Case is just a 60s Seamaster case with the Seamaster logo on back. Ref 165.002 I believe. I had a nice one a couple months ago.
Exactly right. You'll see pocket watches and wrist watches (Ball, Accutron) with the same dial and hands because they met the specification that the railroads asked for. Considering that the railroads here mostly bought the watches and issued them to the employees, I'd say it's almost certain that these were used in service. Tom
Oh and as for the name, the Railmaster was the anti-magnetic watches. Big bus bars in the power plant were frequently called rails because that's what they looked like. The massive amounts of current running through those rails generates a significant magnetic force, enough to goof up your watch of the time, made with a base metal case and a steel balance spring. Tom
According to AJTT (pp222) it's a caliber 550. Ref is ST 165.002 as mentioned by @kyle L, these models were only delivered to the USA.
yeah that figures... I collect railroad watches and that face is so very "American railroad"! this one is Canadian..... they required the 13 - 24 inner chapter