The railwayman’s profession has always been the most romantic along with the profession of a pilot and a sailor.
Outgoing paths are the same symbol of traction to distant wanderings, like a seaport or an airfield. The railway is a special world, and even the hours for this world had to be made special Omega Railmaster wrist watch review.
When the age of steam locomotives was gone and the drivers could afford to wear white shirts without fear of coal burn, another problem arose. The current running in the contact network and the electric equipment of the electric locomotives created strong magnetic fields, in which not every device could work correctly.
The exact time in the age of electricity
The magnetic field also affected the work of the clockwork, while on transport the time readings always played a very important role. A solution was found. More than 60 years ago, in 1957, the famous luxury watch company Omega released a special “railway” model of watches, which the Swiss masters addressed both to the crews of electric locomotives, and to a wide range of professionals working in conditions of strong magnetic fields. The model is called Railmaster. I must say that even in those days it was possible to purchase “antimagnetic” watches from other manufacturers, but these models could withstand a magnetic induction of no more than 60 gauss. Omeg immediately pulled ahead, guaranteeing protection from a magnetic field of up to 1000 gauss.
Today, the Railmaster watch is experiencing a triumphant return: Omega has re-released the watch under the legendary railway mark. Since the 50s of the last century, the technology has moved far ahead, and the Master Chronometer (caliber 8806) used in the new Railmaster allows correct operation under magnetic field conditions with an induction value of up to 15,000 gauss. The antimagnetic properties of the watch were confirmed by a certificate from the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology (METAS).
Minutes and sleepers
Of course, modifications made to the model are not limited to the new mechanism. Developers did their best to keep the original spirit of railway romance in the new Railmaster, but they did it using modern design solutions. The dial is not smooth, it has a texture made in the form of coarse vertical grinding. The base color of the dial is gray, but there is also a black version. If you take a closer look at the minute scale, you can see that it is a stylized image of the railway track – the rails running around in a circle, resting on sleepers (in the historical model of 1957, the connection with the railway was emphasized by the clockwise design resembling a semaphore baton).
A distinctive element of the dial design was the crosshair of two perpendicular thin lines, causing associations with precise optical instruments – binoculars or sights. In-depth indices are covered with a vintage fluorescent Super-LumiNova compound.
The creators of the model took care not only of the clock working in strong magnetic fields: the new Railmaster has very impressive water resistance. Watches withstand water pressure up to 15 bar, which corresponds to immersion to a depth of 150 m, and therefore the back cover of the clock is marked with a famous image of seahorse. The shape of the Railmaster is finished with a polished stainless steel bracelet or a brown NATO leather strap.
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