A classy classic Ball Trainmaster for you :-)
A petit(ish) 39.5mm in stainless steel, it has an AR-coated sapphire crystal and is water resistant to 30 meters.
Shock resistant to 5,000 G’s. You’d be well dead before the watch was!
Movement is the automatic ETA caliber 2836.
Rather nice!
A watch for fans of Gordon Ramsay (who should also get that reference!).
Limited to 999 pieces, this piece isn’t really named after the sweary Scottish philanderer chef; rather a locomotive of the Union Pacific Railroad. Hence the badge.
It’s a big boy sized 46mm, in stainless steel.
There’s an AR-coated sapphire crystal and water resistance to 100 meers.
Movement is the ETA caliber 2836-2 with 25 jewels.
Shock resistant to 5000G’s. Wowser!
[Press Release] BALL Watch Company honors Grand Central Terminal with a commemorative watch for its Centennial Celebration.
BALL Watch Company is proud to celebrate Grand Central Terminal’s 2013 Centennial and has produced an exclusive, limited-edition timepiece (999 pieces)– Engineer Master II Collection — which encapsulates its own extensive railroading history.
Grand Central Terminal stands as one of America’s greatest transportation hubs and one of New York City’s most iconic buildings. Over the course of a colorful and tumultuous 100-year history, Grand Central has gone from being simply the start and end points of long-distance rail travel, to being a destination for commuters, tourists and residents that boasts restaurants, cocktail lounges, a gourmet market, and numerous specialty shops. Its storied Vanderbilt Hall, once the receiving area for travelers, is one of the most-desired public events spaces in the city.
The case, in stainless steel, measures 44mm x 13.3mm. It has an AR-coated sapphire crystal and is water resistant to 100 meters.
Movement is the Swiss automatic caliber BALL 651 (base ETA) with second time zone complication. It is shock resistant to 5,000Gs and anti-magnetic to 4,800A/m.
Ball certainly make some very nice watches.
It’s a shame they aren’t more generally available here in Australia (and the one outlet I did go into, in Melbourne, was utterly and completely useless. But that’s another story!).
Here’s one more that may never reach these shores, but we can live vicariously through the press release instead :-)
[Press Release] In 2010, BALL Watch Company was the premier watchmaker to present the first mechanical movement including a day and date function combined with a 24-hour time zone display. The “Engineer Master II Diver Worldtime” and “Trainmaster Worldtime” models were the first BALL timepieces to have a caliber with this new module developed specially in our workshops.
To provide watches that can operate at the same time in the four corners of the globe for inveterate travellers and businessmen off to conquer the world, BALL Watch Company decided to extend its collection of a new model housing its universal time display module. In this way, BALL is offering a new tool that is able to display at any given moment the common denominator of all human beings, namely the passage of time and the value that each man and woman places on it.
In its absolute respect for the values of precision, reliability and tradition of the “Trainmaster” series, the Worldtime Chronograph thus provides a worthy addition to the BALL watches combining a day and date function with the time display in the 24 hour zones. Grafted onto an automatic ETA 7750 movement, a special module drives a disk engraved with the names of the planet’s main metropolises rotating automatically in the reverse direction to the hands, so that it simultaneously indicates the time in 24 different geographic zones. In this way, BALL Watch has relaunched the attraction for its chronograph range, ever a timeless watchmaking complication and one of the functions unanimously appreciated by mechanical timepiece aficionados. The Trainmaster Worldtime Chronograph therefore delivers the perfect combination of these two accomplished watchmaking complications.
The first of our chronographs to be fitted with this technical innovation, this new model also incorporates all the features for which BALL watches are renowned. The first of these, the iconic signature of our brand, is the watch’s perfect legibility even in the dark thanks to the addition of 15 micro-tubes filled with 3H gas on the hands and the dial. This state-of-the-art Swiss technology means a BALL watch wearer never loses sight of the notion of time, day or night, wherever he or she may be.
Water-resistant to 50 meters and certified shock resistant up to 5,000Gs, the Trainmaster Worldtime Chronograph ably combines strength with streamlined elegance and restrained design. Available with a white or black dial, the stainless steel case can be affixed to the wrist using a crocodile leather band. An anti-reflective sapphire crystal and screw-in crown add the final demanding touches to this exceptional chronograph.
Today, more than ever, BALL Watch is continuing its journey and asserting its role as a key protagonist in the exploration of modern time and the evolution of watchmaking history.
Model Number: CM2052D-LJ-BK
Movement: Automatic caliber BALL 352
Functions:
15 micro gas tubes on hour, minute, second hands and dial for night reading capability
Chronograph with accumulated time measurement up to 12 hours
World Time display
Shock resistant to 5,000Gs
Water resistant to 50m/160ft
Hours, minutes, subsidiary seconds, day and date
Case:
Stainless steel
Ø 42mm, height 13.7mm
Anti-reflective sapphire crystal
Sapphire crystal case back
Screwed-in crown
Band: Crocodile leather strap with standard buckle
Dial: Black or white
Bracelet: Bracelet en crocodile avec boucle à ardillon
Cadran: Noir ou blanc
Ball produce some really great pieces.
Unfortunately, this isn’t one of them :-) (my opinion only!).
Still, each to their own.
This Fireman Sante Fe Special is a 43mm DLC coated stainless steel piece.
It has an AR-coated sapphire crystal and is water resistant to 100 meters.
Movement is the Swiss automatic ETA caliber 2824-2 with 25 jewels.
The watch does have a very impressive 5000g shock resistance (you’d be very dead before the watch was!) and gas-tube luminosity.
Technically it’s not bad then, so why don’t I like it?
Perhaps just my personal taste, but the colours don’t work for me; neither do the fat hands.
What do you think?
Am I missing out on a masterpiece?
Is it Saturday the 28th or Sunday 28th?
Nobody seems to know.
Ball needs answers!
Don’t let confusion over what day it is put you off though (I have that challenge every day), the Ball Trainmaster Eternity is a fine looking – albeit a fairly ‘standard’ piece.
Measuring 39.5mm in stainless steel, it has an AR-coated sapphire crystal and is water resistant to 30 meters.
Movement is the Swiss automatic ETA caliber 2836 with 25 jewels.
MSRP is $2,099 on bracelet, $1,999 on alligator leather strap.
Now, where am I … ?
Wow .. deep indeed!
Available later this month for around $4K.
[Press Release] The arrival of Guillaume Néry, holder of several constantweight free-diving world records, as a member of the Ball Explorers Club in 2006 was for Ball Watch an opportunity to focus its efforts on the development of a line of timepieces implementing the brand’s watchmaking expertise for underwater diving. Ball diving watches were previously included in the “Engineer Master II” series. However, the concentrate of watchmaking technology in the new Engineer Hydrocarbon DeepQuest means that this explorer’s watch fits naturally in the “Engineer Hydrocarbon” family.
To swim in complete freedom with dolphins, discover the world’s deepest underwater gorges or swim beneath the ice are just some of the exploits achieved by Guillaume Néry.
In his own words, these are the sort of dreams that the oceans allow you to fulfill. For an enthusiast of the aquatic world, such as Guillaume Néry, a diving watch is the sole personal object that he takes with him when he sets off to explore the world’s seas. The planet’s last unexplored frontier, the oceans provide man with the possibility of entering an ecosystem of exceptional wealth and which is the cradle of the life itself on Earth.
By raising the water resistance of the new Engineer Hydrocarbon DeepQuest to 3,000 meters, the Ball Watch engineers have achieved a spectacular new technical feat and have pushed back the boundaries of their expertise. This exceptional water resistance has been made possible in particular by machining the entire case out of a single block onto which the bezel is directly screwed.
This construction reduces the potential interfaces liable to warp under the effects of water pressure. Strengthening the crown seals, generally considered the weak point of a watch in terms of water resistance, has contributed to avoid any entry of water when it is maintained in the screwed-in position. The generously proportioned titanium case as well as the wide dial opening and its streamlined design also enable immediate and clear reading of the timepiece’s indications, another essential feature of any diving watch. With the extremely accurate and new Ball patented setting system, the rotating bezel easily indicates to the user the time lapse he may need while diving.
Furthermore, its unidirectional rotation is an additional source of safety in the event of its accidental movement while in the water.
The dial and the hands are fitted with gas micro tubes, the iconic signature of all Ball watches, to ensure perfect legibility. Until 100 times more efficient than the use of conventional luminescent paint, this Swiss technology ensures perfect luminosity without the need for any external source of light or energy. The patented design of the three-dimensional luminescent vision of the indexes finally illuminates the dial in blue, the last color which remains visible in the darkness of the deep.
The tapered stainless steel and titanium bracelet, with the Ball patented folding buckle and extension system, mean the watch can be easily and safely worn on the wrist even over a diving suit. Loyal to the exceptional characteristics of its collection, the Engineer Hydrocarbon DeepQuest has a guaranteed shock resistance of up to 7,500Gs and an antimagnetic endurance of an intensity of up to 4,800A/m.
Ref: DM3000A-SCJ-BK
The case is done in titanium out of a single block.
Movement is the Swiss automatic ETA caliber 2892, COSC-certified as a chronometer.
It is water resistant to 3,000 meters and dials are available in black or silver.
I love this limited edition Ball Trainmaster Celcius.
It looks great, but the coolest part for me is the integrated mechanical thermometer!
This part has been both developed and patented by Ball themselves, and is 97% accurate between -35°C to +45°C. Wow.
Ball haven’t just done this because they can though; the watch is actually a tribute to Anders Celcius – inventor of the eponymous temperature scale.
As such, the watch features a portrait of Celcius on the caseback.
The watch itself is a 41mm stainless steel piece and features an automatic mechanical movement.
In addition to the temperature gauge, it comes equipped with 15 micro gas tubes on the hour, minute, second hands and dial for low-light/night reading capability.
The piece comes on a black crocodile strap.
Chances of nabbing one are slim – only 310 will be made – and you should get behind me in the queue :-)
No word on price yet.
To celebrate 120 years of keeping the trains running on time (err, sort of), Ball have released the Trainmaster One Hundred Twenty.
This special edition will cost you somewhere around $8000 to own, so this might be one for true Ball fans perhaps (stop smirking!).
For your 8 grand you’ll be getting: a 39.5mm rose gold case; a sunray pattern dial (in silver or grey color) with 15 micro gas tubes on the hour, minute and second hands; an ETA 2892 automatic mechanical movement; 50m water resistance; a screw-in crown and a crocodile strap with rose gold buckle.
Out now.
Like this one. The limited edition (1999 piece) Ball Storm Chaser.
Released as a tribute to storm chasers, the caseback has an engraving of Josh Wurman’s Doppler on Wheels. He was the first man to mount a weather radar on his truck to analyse and understand the structure of these phenomena apparently.
The case is stainless steel black PVD and measures 43mm. It has an AR-coated sapphire crystal and is water resistant to 100 meters.
Movement is the Swiss automatic ETA caliber Valjoux 7750 with 25 jewels, 28,800 vph and a power reserve of 42 hours.
The black dial features 66 micro-tubes of tritium gas.
Price: TBC.
