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·A few years ago, I sold my beloved Ranchero 2990 in order to fund the purchase of my Trilogy Railmaster from my OB. I love my Railmaster, but at times I find it big and bulky and I miss the slimmer profile and more convenient size (my wrist is 6-3/4") of the Railmaster's little brother, the Ranchero.
A couple weeks ago, I was fortunate to find and negotiate a fair price on a clean example from a very friendly and informative seller on Chrono24. It was great getting a Ranchero back in my humble collection to be worn in regular rotation.
I wanted to share the information I learned and I hope someone one day finds this thread useful.
A 2990 (sub-seconds dial) with 16 million SN that corresponds to 1958. Nice original dial, with some signs of polishing on the case. Paint missing from the formerly white painted sub seconds hand. Possibly re-lumed hands, but minimally degraded lume plots on the dial.
This time I wanted to wear on a bracelet and this is wear I got quite an education from the knowledgeable seller.
The original flatlink bracelet is a 7077 with #4 endlinks. Apparently there are 3 different versions of the #4 endlinks: caution! the early ones have NO notches on the backside, making the insertion of your spring bar tool a bit of a challenge.
Another option for the Flatlink bracelet is the 1035 with 630 endlinks which is a 1970's era bracelet which fits at least as well and is a bit more affordable than the rarer, 1950-60's era 7077.
Before I would hunt down a 1035, I wanted to try one of the aftermarket Flatlink bracelets made by Forstner and Uncle Seiko which have had various complimentary discussions here on the Forums. Only Uncle Seiko currently offers an 18mm flatlink and it costs a fraction of an original Omega bracelet. Although the center links have sharp edges instead of the slightly more rounded corners of the original Omega 7077 and 1035, it worked out brilliantly!
The bottom lug gap was slightly narrower than the usual 18mm and I had to file a bit of edges of the endlinks as well as the first, widest outer links of the bracelet, therefore I'm glad I spent about $100 and not $1500 on the bracelet that I needed to "mod". The results were quite acceptable:
The Ranchero's 267 movement is hand wound, so I thought about eventually changing the winding crown to a Railmaster style Naiad crown, but actually the "bowler hat" crown of the Ranchero is quite grippy and is just fine for daily winding. The proper part number for the Ranchero winding crown is: 069ST45002.
Next let's talk about the crystal of the Ranchero.
Mine came with an aftermarket crystal which has a tall boxy profile.
When I have it serviced, I'd like to replace it with the correct domed crystal which is part number: 063PZ5005
Until Omega decides to reissue the Ranchero or reintroduce the Railmaster in a classic 36mm size, my "perfect watch" will be a mythical and imaginary amalgamation of the classic, slender size of the Ranchero and the robustness and modern conveniences of the Trilogy Railmaster. I predict tons of wrist time divided between these two:
A couple weeks ago, I was fortunate to find and negotiate a fair price on a clean example from a very friendly and informative seller on Chrono24. It was great getting a Ranchero back in my humble collection to be worn in regular rotation.
I wanted to share the information I learned and I hope someone one day finds this thread useful.
A 2990 (sub-seconds dial) with 16 million SN that corresponds to 1958. Nice original dial, with some signs of polishing on the case. Paint missing from the formerly white painted sub seconds hand. Possibly re-lumed hands, but minimally degraded lume plots on the dial.
This time I wanted to wear on a bracelet and this is wear I got quite an education from the knowledgeable seller.The original flatlink bracelet is a 7077 with #4 endlinks. Apparently there are 3 different versions of the #4 endlinks: caution! the early ones have NO notches on the backside, making the insertion of your spring bar tool a bit of a challenge.
Another option for the Flatlink bracelet is the 1035 with 630 endlinks which is a 1970's era bracelet which fits at least as well and is a bit more affordable than the rarer, 1950-60's era 7077.
Before I would hunt down a 1035, I wanted to try one of the aftermarket Flatlink bracelets made by Forstner and Uncle Seiko which have had various complimentary discussions here on the Forums. Only Uncle Seiko currently offers an 18mm flatlink and it costs a fraction of an original Omega bracelet. Although the center links have sharp edges instead of the slightly more rounded corners of the original Omega 7077 and 1035, it worked out brilliantly!
The bottom lug gap was slightly narrower than the usual 18mm and I had to file a bit of edges of the endlinks as well as the first, widest outer links of the bracelet, therefore I'm glad I spent about $100 and not $1500 on the bracelet that I needed to "mod". The results were quite acceptable:
The Ranchero's 267 movement is hand wound, so I thought about eventually changing the winding crown to a Railmaster style Naiad crown, but actually the "bowler hat" crown of the Ranchero is quite grippy and is just fine for daily winding. The proper part number for the Ranchero winding crown is: 069ST45002.
Next let's talk about the crystal of the Ranchero.
Mine came with an aftermarket crystal which has a tall boxy profile.
When I have it serviced, I'd like to replace it with the correct domed crystal which is part number: 063PZ5005
Until Omega decides to reissue the Ranchero or reintroduce the Railmaster in a classic 36mm size, my "perfect watch" will be a mythical and imaginary amalgamation of the classic, slender size of the Ranchero and the robustness and modern conveniences of the Trilogy Railmaster. I predict tons of wrist time divided between these two:
Edited:
