THE OMEGA RAILMASTER
Vintage Omega Railmaster ref. 2914-6 / Credit: Amsterdam Watch Company
The Omega Seamaster is for water sports what the Omega Speedmaster is for racing (or space…), but what about the Railmaster? Train conducting?
Released in 1957 as part of Omega’s tool watch trilogy, the Omega Railmaster was essentially a watch for tradesmen and engineers; people who worked with their hands, but more importantly around magnetic fields, which as we know can cause timepieces to become severely inaccurate. The Omega Railmaster was Omega’s first highly anti-magnetic watch, resisting up to 1,000 gauss of magnetic energy. Omega was a bit late to the anti-mag game, as the Rolex Milgauss and IWC Ingenieur were already on the market, but made up for it by releasing three watches at once (in economic terms the Omega Speedmaster certainly made up for any losses).
Omega Seamaster Railmaster Co-Axial Master Chronometer / Credit: Raffi Jewellers
Throughout the 1950s Omega created several Omega Railmaster prototypes, one of them, produced in 1953, was famously given to British Royal Air Force pilots to test. As a result of the stringent standards of the RAF, these prototypes were not only anti-magnetic, but also featured chronometer grade movements, and robust steel cases. Some Omega Railmasters were actually commissioned by the Pakistani Air Force, as the anti-magnetism was extremely useful given all the flight instruments in the cockpit. The first official Railmaster, the CK2914, featured a faraday Cage to protect the movement against magnetic energy (just like the Milgauss) and the 30T2 as the base movement. In fact, the first Omega Railmaster was very similar, in terms of aesthetics, to the Omega Seamaster; differentiated only by the thickness of the dial, the “Railmaster” inscription, and the anti-magnetism.
Unfortunately, the Omega Railmaster was only produced for a short amount of time, ending in 1963. There was a good amount of them produced, but they are still extremely hard to find. Moreover, with the recent increase in demand for vintage Omega, we expect the Railmaster to gain quite a bit of clout in the years to come.