Omega

There is a certain aura with British military watches. To be fair, there is an aura to most military watches, but the British ones do seem to attract more attention than most, and that is often reflected in the price. Rolex MilSubs regularly change hands for six-figure sums. But the beauty with the genre is that one can find very interesting military watches at extremely reasonable prices. In this sense, my dip into military Omega falls into the category of interesting and reasonably priced. But it goes further than that…..

Picture courtesy of internet...courtesy of Ludi.

The Omega Reference 2777-1 was produced in 1953 for the British Royal Air Force. It was produced for just one year, with a total of 5900 produced. It was produced for pilots and officers. The 2777-1 is also an amagnetic watch. This was a necessary requirement from the MoD because the aircraft instrumentation could easily have a magnetic effect on a watch and that would not be something that could be tolerated during a military operation. Like other specifically designed  amagnetics, the 2777-1 is cased in soft iron. It also houses the chronometer grade caliber 283 movement. Amagnetic. Manual wind. Chronometer. Specific military issue. What a combination!!

But it goes further than that. Over time, I have found a great deal of satisfaction owning the central second feature. The Mk11 IWC and JLC military watches come in a smaller case size than this Omega, and at 37mm the Omega sits with a really comfortable sizing.

The 2777-1 that now belongs to me is nicknamed the “Fat Arrow”. Originally, the dial came using radium on the lume. However, the British MoD replaced these dials with a tritium-based lume. In order to differentiate which watches had been replaced, the tritium dials had the letter “T” printed under the Omega on the dial. I am sure that the original radium-based dial watches are still around and obviously desirable, but actually I find myself equally as drawn to this “T” version. 

The watch is supposedly waterproof to 30m, though I won’t be putting that to the test any time soon! 

The case back has inscribed upon it the NATO code, the 6B/542 aircraft issue and also the store number and year of issue. In this instance, all these 2777-1 were from the 1953 batch. 

The Omega 2914 is often seen as the Railmaster to own. In fact, and as an Omega beginner I will happily bow to more expertise knowledge, but it seems to me that the very first Railmaster was in fact the 2777-2. However, the only difference between the 2777-1 and 2777-2 being that the former has the fixed lugs for military issue whereas the latter does not have the fixed lugs and was aimed for civilian use. Other than that, the watches seem identical. In this sense, could one legitimately argue that the very first Railmaster, albeit not labelled as such, was the 2777-1? 

Yes, I am a beginner in a world of vintage Omega snake pits. This 2777-1 is not without some flaws. There are a few chunks dinged into the case. I like to think of these as having been made during military operations! The dial is the MoD replacement (I am guessing in the 1960s). Yes, the watch is not perfect…..but a manual wind chronometer, specifically designed to be amagnetic in order to facilitate military use and ordered for just one year from the British MoD…..WOW! Basically, that is what I thought……

....and thats why its now on my wrist!