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Baselworld 2010: Ball Watches
Apr 12, 2010,02:40 AM
Baselworld 2010: Ball
by Marcus Hanke
That Swiss watch manufacturers are owned by Americans is not uncommon, just think of IWC's founder F.A. Jones. The problem with constellations like these is, that the watches become popular in the United States, but remain barely known where they are produced, in Europe. Concord, Movado and Hamilton are good examples for that. With a lot effort from their new owners, this is now tried to be changed. For Ball, the perspective seems to be less optimistic. For Europe, the official Ball web site only lists authorized dealers in Spain and Great Britain, and but a single dealer in Switzerland, despite the fact that the watches are assembled in Neuchâtel, within the Swiss Jura, the country's classic watch manufacturing region.
This awareness problem is certainly not justified, since Ball traditionally offers interesting timepieces, with unique features and complications that sometimes are even exclusive to the brand. Above all, the watches are very reasonably priced. But maybe the reason lies in the brand's history and marketing, in the lack of a true modern hero?
What astonishes me is that highly renown watch manufacturers virtually beat themselves for the "privilege" of using airplanes, spacecraft, ships, even cars for their marketing, but Ball is the only company concentrating on the railroad. Why are planes, rockets, ships and cars so popular, and the railway apparently is not?
As a matter of fact, the railroad is the most energy efficient means of mass transport, it is less polluting than all others, safer than most of them, and also more reliable. But nobody wants to use them for advertising, let alone building a brand identity around it? Also, historically, the railroad is the most important invention: Without railway, there would not have been the industrial revolution, modern finance system, liberalism, mobility of the individual, world time zones, and, of course, modern watches. Never before in the history of mankind, the lives of many people depended on the accuracy of watches.
Vintage ad for Ball watches
Of course everybody involved in watch collecting knows about the importance of marine chronometers for navigation. But marine chronometers, like their compact counterparts, the observation or deck watches, were highly tuned precision timepieces, very valuable, and only one or two pieces were kept aboard, well protected in their cases.
The railroad, however, and the fact that many trains were rolling at high speed on the very same rails, made it necessary that every train conductor and every station master had their personal precision watches. Already four minutes deviation could cause a collision of trains and the loss of lives. This is what happened in 1891, when a defect in a train engineer's watch was found to be responsible for a horrible train crash at Kipton, Ohio. A Cleveland jeweler, Webster Clay Ball, was appointed the chief inspector for watches of a major railroad company, marking the birth of the watch company we are now speaking about.
The 1891 train collision at Kipton, Ohio, was caused by a watch having stopped for four minutes
So, why are railroads not so popular, that other watch companies do not compete in advertising with them? When I was a boy, future job dreams were always expressed with "train conductor", on par with "pilot" and "astronaut". A scale model railroad was on the top of our wish lists, but, apparently, something has happened and changed this all. European railroads, formerly admired by Mark Twain, and an example of punctuality, have become synonymous for lack of reliability and massive delays, for burning big money by developing huge deficits. Today, nobody really wants to travel with the railroad any more. Maybe this is the reason why the Ball advertising campaign is not perceived as glamorous enough for people whose views have been spoiled by symbols of speed, power, and modernism, that are NOT running on rails.
Anyway, I, at least, am fascinated by the history behind Ball watches, even if this is not connected with the current company, which is of much more recent origin. I love to read their catalogues, which always contain a very nice treatise on the railroad's history, with many pictures and stories. For that alone, it is worth ordering the catalogue.
A technical feature that makes Ball watch rather unique, even if it is not used exclusively by this company, is the way how the hands and markers are illuminated in the dark: Instead of the ubiquitous inactive Super Luminova, Ball uses the slightly radioactive tritium as gas, enclosed in tiny crystal containers. that are inside coated with phosphor. The advantage of this method is that, unlike SuperLuminova, the tritium gas-activated phosphor does not depend from prior activation by light. Consequently, it will shine even after the watch had been stored in a dark drawer for weeks or months. The big disadvantage is that the crystal tubes limit the flexibility of designing a dial. However, Ball has achieved an astonishing level in integrating its tritium tubes into a great variety of designs.
Speaking about Ball's 2010 novelties, the "Engineer Master II Diver World Time" is an interesting and massive diving watch, offering a world time function, date and weekday. The 24 hours chapter around the dial rotates counter-clockwise, while the city register is adjusted manually, by means of the crown at 2.
Very attractive is the variant with black city register and silver dial center. This color combination, often dubbed "tuxedo", seems to be very popular with the watch manufacturers, since I have seen it frequently this year.
Another new model is the "Engineer Hydrocarbon Spacemaster Orbital". I did not make any pictures, since I was told the piece shown in Basel was still a prototype, which will undergo several changes, before it reaches the dealers. The interesting feature is a rotor-lock mechanism, which is claimed to protect the chronograph movement from free fall damage up to more than five meters. The idea is to lock the rotor in potentially dangerous situations, keeping it from spinning around with too much force. A small twist on the center of the case back converts the automatic 7750 movement into a hand-winding movement. Another twist releases the rotor again.
Minor improvements have been made to the unique crown lock of the Engineer Hydrocarbon series, and also a new and very massive steel bracelet has been released.
This Trainmaster Power Reserve has a nice hunter case, where the outer caseback pops open, when the small pusher at 4 is pressed.
I am ending my Ball report with but a brief glimpse on my favorite, even if it is not a real novelty: Ball is the only manufacturer offering a series-built mechanical wristwatch with a thermometer: the Diver TMT from the Engineer Master series.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
The original Ball watches had a good reputation and were synonymous with performance -- officially recognised by the railroads.
After the restoraton of the brand name and translocation to Switzerland recently, they have bee seen as 'me-too' watches ridingon the coat-tails of the resurgence in interest in mechanical watches and 'history'. The gimmicky gas-powered lights on the dials added to the image.
This year, they may be starting to look like real watches with usable functions. Certainly, we need to d Grand Comparison PuristS Test of th 'thermometer' watches available and our adventurous Marcus Hanke may be the man to do it!
Melvyn Teillol-Foo