Railways, railroads and Seiko.

(Click on any image for a much larger view)

There was a time when timekeeping for the operation of railways/railroads was ultra-critical - literally a matter of life or death at worst. In "dark areas" (no signals) trains operated on warrants which gave them permission to be in a location at a certain time - or within a window of time.
Therefore it was essential that the timepieces used on railways/railroads be accurate and easily read.

Enter the railroad timepiece, be it clock or watch.
In many cases they displayed a 24-hour scale in addition to the conventional 12-hour face and some variations had a 12-hour scale but with an addition of a 60-minute scale.
Their dials were very distinctive, with large, clear numbers and indices, usually black and red on a white face.

Nowadays the timepieces used are electronic and highly accurate but watchmakers have continued to produce examples of the type with the traditional face, albeit controlled by the magic of a quartz crystal and powered by battery.

I bought a nice example of a Seiko model - the 7N43-9A00 from August 1991 - which features the traditional  face, with black hour numerals, a sub-scale of 24 hours in red, period-style minute and hour hands and a red sweep second hand.
Something that the old-timers didn't have were readouts for day and date, which this modern version includes.

Size is a mere 36mm across the case (not including crown) and a dial diameter of 30mm.
The watch comes on its original Seiko stainless-steel bracelet.