Omega

watchdude
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BALL AND OMEGA

Catherine and Mr. Sohne,

The story behind the short lived Omega "Railtoad official standard" watch is pretty cool. (to me any way!) 

When omega introduced this watch in the early 60's, Ball was angry. Very angry. After a rapid exchange of attorney letters from Ball proving that Ball had used that term as their motto for close to 70 years, omega agreed to cease and desist.

Thus, those watches were made for a very scant amount of time.

The reason, btw, that these watches had large so called "boxcar" type dials, in bold black numbers with white background is because that iw what the Ball family insisted upon. the Ball family had watch inspectors on millions of miles of roads and were the arbiters of what was an official railraod wattch and to be allowed on the roads.  For over 60 years Ball insisted on easy to read dials before a watch could be accepted on the roads that they controlled.

                                                                 Jeff Hess
(and yes, i have copies of the attorney letters.)

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