As the rising cost of living continues to squeeze, watch lovers can look forward to ‘early bird’ discounts this month on both next year’s Ball Engineer III Outlier and tickets to November’s WATCHPRO Salon.
Known for making extremely robust tool watches, Ball works on both the inside and outside of its timepieces, believing that precision can only truly be improved if external factors such as shock and magnetism are reduced or eliminated. To that end, Ball has a reputation for putting a lot of R&D into its cases, not just its calibres.
While most brands launch new watch models with full fanfare, Ball Watch takes a more individual approach to upcoming launches. Announcing watches, often months in advance of their entry into retail outlets, Ball aims to create a buzz and build anticipation.
Beyond this, Ball encourages pre-orders with significant discounts for those who choose to get in early, meaning that it is often in a buyer’s best interest to buy direct from the brand rather than waiting for the retail delivery date. In addition, with many of Ball’s watches being limited editions, they occasionally sell out before their official release date.
The latest pre-order watch from Ball is the Engineer III Outlier. A GMT, the watch is a nod to the brand’s roots in the establishment of railroad standard time that enabled safe and accurately-timed long-distance travel.
Compact by other Engineer standards, the watch features a 904L stainless-steel case that is 40mm in diameter and 13.8mm high. The composition of 904L steel makes it extremely hard and gives greater resistance to corrosion, rust and acids. A deep crown-guard and domed sapphire crystal add to the robustness of the piece, which is water resistant to 200m.
A mu-metal (nickel-iron, soft ferromagnetic alloy) shield around the calibre provides protection from magnetic fields up to 1,000 Gauss.
Within the case is Ball’s self-winding, COSC-certified GMT Calibre RRM7337-C. The quick-set function allows the local 12-hour hand to be set in one-hour increments via the crown. The date wheel moves in sync with the local time.
The watch features hours, minutes, sweep second and a magnified date. Against the deep black dial, Ball’s signature micro gas tubes mean that the watch is supremely legible in all light conditions. All-in-all there are 29 luminous tubes – the 12 o’clock indication marked with a yellow light, the other hour markers with green and the GMT hours on the inner bezel in yellow. Green Super-LumiNova is used to highlight the 24-hour indication on the bi-directional rotating bezel, which allows for a third time-zone to be tracked.
The Engineer III Outlier is equipped with a stainless-steel bracelet and additional NATO, rubber and calf straps are also available. Limited to 1,000 pieces, it is now available for pre-order until 28 September 2022 for £2,151 (against a retail price of £2,860). Orders are scheduled to ship between March and April 2023.
A full range of Ball watches will be on show at WATCHPRO Salon, 10-12 November. Tickets for the event at the Londoner Hotel in Liecester Square are available now and, if bought in September, will be subject to a 20% discount. Prices range from £16 to £80 (from 1 October £20 to £100).
