Right after shipping off that Formex, I just got another watch in! Got this one off of a forum from a REALLY swell guy… sold it to me for such a great price and included Express Shipping all they way to Canada. Got off easy with no duties/taxes too!

Anyway.. here is the wonderful watch from ball:

Ball GMT

This is truly one of my favourite watches I’ve received in a LONG time. When i play with it and wear it I get almost as giddy as I do when trying on a new Breitling! Ball watches have been around a while, making watches for the adverse conditions of the railroad building trade I believe. Their new watches have cool Tritium tubes in them to make the indices glow super bright for 25 years!! This one contains an Swiss ETA Automatic movement… the 2893-2. This movement is based on the ETA 2892-2 but wiht the addition of a GMT hand module.

This Ball I purchased is indeed used, and is an older one with the older packaging.. i believe newer models have a white box.

ball packaging

Comes with plenty of links, and a half link as well. A decent sized manual that i have not yet need to consult. Out of the box the watch is keeping time within COSC standards, which is very good. This watch just sits on the wrist really nicely and looks really darn good to boot!

wrist shot

All three hands and all hour indices have the tritium illumination from the tubes. The Second hand and GMT look the same in the dark, however you can tell the difference by the fact that the second one moves a lot quicker. Dial is a nice matte black finish with painted lettering… not quite as nice as the Breitling Dials, but still quite nice indeed. Bezel is very cool as well.

face

The back of the watch has a very neat engraving/stamping of a submarine, and mentions that the watch is good to -40degrees celcius… a nice feature as it does get cold in Canada!

Back

The bracelet is very well made and I highly recommend the watch in general. Sapphire crystal, Solid stainless bracelet, very robust case and unique styling. It is a lot more streamlined than Breitling watches are, which tend to sit ON the wrist, rather than AROUND the wrist like the Ball.

This Ball also has the signaure ball crown lock which flips up when you release it and pull upwards. A neat feature, but more of s styling gimmick than anything else… kind of like Panerai’s crown protector!

Movement: 8/10
Case/Crystal/Crown: 9/10
Dial/Hands: 8/10
Strap / Buckle / Bracelet: 8/10
Accuracy: 9/10
Comfort: 8/10
Packaging / Manual: 6/10
Overall Impression: 9/10