Established in 1891 by Webb C. Ball, a jeweler and watchmaker based in Cleveland, Ohio, Ball Watch is a high-end brand which creates exquisite timepieces with a certain industrial flavor. The company’s latest release, called the Engineer Master II Slide Chronograph, is not only all of that, but also brings something to new to wristwatch design.
The new model abandons the traditional double-pusher (or single-pusher) design, replacing it with a slide bar, which is located on the case at 9 o’clock, opposite the crown. By sliding the bar clockwise (which then retracts automatically), the chronograph starts and stops. Sliding it counter-clockwise resets the mechanism.
In addition to this innovation, what’s striking about the timepiece is its sheer size: at 47.6 mm in diameter, it is markedly above average, allowing a lot of functionality to be squeezed in. Features include a permanent tachymeter scale, 30-minute and 12-hour chronographs, as well as day and date windows. Thanks to the use of tritium (a radioactive gas housed in miniature glass tubes), the hour hands glow yellow, the hour markers green, and noon glows red, making the timepiece very easy to read even in the dark.
Pricing details for the Engineer Master II Slide Chronograph by Ball Watch are yet to be released.
[Hodinkee]
