OMEGA Railmaster 235.10.38.20.06.001: specs and what to check

Under forty-five millimetres

The number that sells this reference is not on most listings, because most listings quote diameter.

Lug to lug: 44.92 mm.

Only the 41 mm Constellation, at 44.00, spans less among the OMEGA references here — and the dive models run from 47.5 up to 51.9. It is also under the forty-five millimetre mark that a lot of buyers with smaller wrists use as a rule of thumb.

Combine it with the published 38 mm diameter, 12.36 mm height and 136 g weight and you have a complete, honest picture of a genuinely compact steel watch. All four figures come from the manufacturer.

If you deal with customers who have tried modern OMEGA and found it too large, this is the reference to put in front of them, and the lug-to-lug figure is the argument.

Nineteen millimetres between the lugs

The published lug width is 19 mm.

That is a real size — plenty of makers produce 19 mm straps — but it is far less common than 20, and a buyer looking at a 38 mm dress-sport watch will assume twenty without checking.

Say it before they ask. It costs a clause in the description and it prevents the specific disappointment of a strap that arrives and does not fit.

The only 8806 here

OMEGA specifies the calibre 8806: self winding, 55 hours, Master Chronometer certified.

The other self-winding OMEGA references documented here run 89xx movements — 8800, 8900, 8912, 8938 — and the ones at 8900 and above carry 60 hours.

Fifty-five is therefore worth holding onto for two reasons. It is the figure you should quote, rather than the sixty you may remember from the rest of the range. And it changes ownership slightly: a watch taken off on Friday evening will not reliably still be running on Sunday night.

A hidden clasp on a light watch

The closure is a foldover butterfly clasp with comfort setting.

Butterfly clasps fold into the bracelet so the band reads as continuous. The consequence is the usual one: nobody inspects them, and they carry the entire watch every time it is put on and taken off.

Open it fully, check both wings release evenly and latch positively, and look at the springs. Then work the comfort setting through its detents and confirm it holds rather than sliding.

At 136 g this is a light watch by OMEGA standards, which means less load on the clasp — but a clasp that no longer catches is a clasp that no longer catches.

Fifteen bar is fifteen bar

The rating is 15 bar (150 metres / 500 feet). OMEGA gives the glass as domed sapphire, treated on both faces — so there is an outer layer to inspect here, not only the unreachable inner one.

A hundred and fifty metres is a solid everyday rating. It is not a diving specification, and OMEGA does not present this reference as one. Describe it as the manufacturer does and leave the dive-watch vocabulary for the dive watches.

The dial is listed as grey, and the case as steel.