First released in 1957, the Omega Railmaster was part of Omega’s infamous “Masters” trilogy of tool watches, consisting of the Speedmaster for race car drivers, the Seamaster 300 for divers, and the Railmaster for railway engineers, scientists, and electricians. While the Railmaster may not have reached the hallowed heights of its siblings in terms of popularity, it endeavored to solve one of the most legitimate problems facing watchmaking at the time, magnetism. With watchmakers across Switzerland vying to produce the most anti-magnetic watch possible, Omega employed an ingenious idea by using a Faraday cage to encase the Railmaster’s movement and protect it from magnetism – which is still one of the most common solutions to the problem today. Thanks to its relatively niche role within the public, Omega pulled production of the Railmaster in 1963, just six short years after launching the collection. However, following 40 years of radio silence, the Railmaster was reintroduced in 2003 while Omega released their new co-axial movements. With history repeating itself, this model was then discontinued in 2012, only for it to be reintroduced in 2017 for its 60th anniversary, with it entering full production shortly after, which it remains in today.

Watch is in very good original conditon overall. Case lugs show wear, consistent with it being well worn over the years. Hour and minute hand luminous appear to fluoresce slightly longer than the rest of the lume, but the tone is all consistent. Dial is in excellent condition, with a bit of a halo around the luminous indexes. Dust cap and retainer ring are included and pictured above. Watch comes with a period box and blank guarantee papers.

Solving a problem that just wasn't common enough for it to remain commercially viable, the Railmaster ultimately failed during its original run, but thankfully, that has meant examples like what we have here are exceedingly rare and often quickly snapped up by eager collectors.