I bought the below Railmaster a bit over two years ago. This is the 2502.52.00 model which comes with the stainless steel bracelet. I wasn't too crazy about the metal bracelet (fits and feels fine, I just found it made the watch too plain looking) and had left the watch on my watch winder for about a year, wearing it not too frequently. I bought an aftermarket brown reptile style deployant strap for the watch many months ago which I greatly prefer over the metal bracelet. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, the watch began running erratically, stopping at times despite being wound. Sometimes a slight jostling would start it again. Finally, though, it stopped running altogether and no slight jostling or winding could coax it into motion. Fortunately the Railmaster has the coaxial escapement which earns it a 3 year warranty. Well, I procrastinated and set the watch aside with receipt and warranty card and just kept forgetting to send it in for warranty repair. Finally, I took it to a local Omega authorized dealer here in Virginia (I had bought it at an authorized dealer in NC) who sent it off to Omega's repair center in NJ. After just 4 weeks passed, I was told the watch was repaired and back. I was very impressed with this quick turnaround! The certificate packed in the nice red carrying case Omega packed the watch in stated the watch now had a rate of 5 seconds gained over a 12 day period. Very impressive, I think! That's a rate gain of just .42 seconds per day! Well within COSC chronometer standards! Over the past couple years I've seen several folks complain here about Omega's New Jersey service center. I just wanted to relate my very positive experience with this service center to all of you. Now I'm wearing my Railmaster on a regular rotation with my other watches. As most of you know, it has tremendous day and night visibility with its big dial (42mm case) and heavy SuperLuminova indices and hands coating. Thanks for your great service, Omega!
By the way, I purchased my Railmaster at Carlyle & Co. (Durham location) who, unfortunately, entered liquidation on 10-17-09 due to a bankruptcy filing by their parent company. This might be a good time for any of you in SC, NC, FL, GA and TN to see if any of this fine jewelers stores are still open and conducting liquidation sales. You can find a store list on their web site (carlyleco.com). As a previous customer, I'm very sorry to see these folks go. Nice selection of watches and nice salepeople. I believe the same parent company is also liquidating another subsidiary, Bailey, Banks and Biddle, who often had a nice selection of pre-owned watches in selected stores (in addition to their wide range of new Swiss watches). There aren't any local stores for me to check on so that's the only info I can provide. Good luck to any of you who check them out!
Steve
