If not for Ball watches, America as we know it might look very, very different.

Following the 1891 Kipton, Ohio railroad disaster, Webster C. Ball was tasked with improving timekeeping across the entire railroad system, a charge he took to with great vigor. Dubbed “Chief Time Inspector,” Ball made certain that railway men were issued with his watches — and that even if they weren’t, that the watches they were using conformed to rigorous timekeeping standards in order to prevent accidents and collisions.

Today, Ball Watch Company is Swiss-owned, and its product line has since expanded to dive watches, chronographs, dress watches, and more.

The particular Ball we have here is a Trainmaster, named in honor of the firm’s American railway heritage. Housed in a 38mm titanium case with a sapphire crystal, a polished, stepped bezel, and a screw-down crown, it features a luminous satin black dial with applied micro-gas tritium tubes as indices, a matching handset, and a date at 3:00. Powered by the automatic Ball RR1101 movement visible via an exhibition caseback, it comes paired to a handsome brown alligator leather strap with a signed, stainless steel pin buckle.

Simple, robust, and handsome, the Trainmaster is the type of hard-wearing everyday watch we can get behind. 

Trust us!