Ball Watch

Brand history

Webster Clay Ball founded Ball Watch Company in Cleveland, Ohio in 1891 to supply railroad-grade precision timepieces following a catastrophic train collision caused by an inaccurate conductor's watch. The modern Ball Watch SA was incorporated in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, from which all Swiss manufacture specifications and in-house RR-series calibers are developed. The brand retains its founding mission, anti-magnetic, anti-shock, tritium-lit instruments rated to railroad accuracy, and has held official supplier status to several national railways.

Founded 1891 in Cleveland, Ohio, by Webb C. Ball, who became the US railroad system's chief time inspector after a 1891 Lake Shore railroad crash, caused by a conductor's watch losing four minutes, killed eleven people. Ball established the "Ball Standard" precision tolerances for railroad pocket watches and later registered the Ball Watch trademark for a line of railroad-grade pocket watches. Ball Watch Company (the Swiss brand, incorporated separately) relaunched in the late 1990s and is headquartered in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The modern catalog is built around shock-resistance and legibility, the Engineer Hydrocarbon series uses micro-gas-tube illumination (the same GTLS system as Luminox) and spring-cushioned movements in rugged steel cases. The brand occupies the CHF 1,000–3,000 sport-and-tool tier with ETA-base movements and is positioned as a more technically-specified alternative to standard Swiss sport watches.