By Dhananjay Pathak
Ball Watch Company is known for producing timepieces that make extensive use of tritium tubes instead of the more commonly used swiss superluminova. Tritium tubes are basically glass tubes filled with tritium gas which undergoes beta decay to emit light and do not need a source of light to charge them. And while both superluminova and tritium have their own pros and cons, the use of tritium tubes definitely lends a distinctive visual appeal to a watch dial especially when executed nicely which is certainly the case with watches from Ball. The Ball Fireman Night Train III is the latest offering from the brand and embodies all the bells and whistles that Ball watches come equipped with, along with a wallet-friendly price tag.
Let me begin by asking you a question. What happens when you place 61 tritium tubes on the dial of a watch? Well, the answer is simple, you head over to turn off the lights in your room and let your watch, which in this case would be the Ball Fireman Night Train III be your guiding light. While I agree that this is an audacious statement to make, considering we haven’t yet gone hands-on with the watch, but going by the brands previous releases and looking at the press photos, I am quite confident that this watch would be a lume monster. Another interesting detail that I am fond of on Ball watches is the way the brand uses color to distinguish the hands and the markers making the watch bright, playful and legible. The Fireman Night Train III comes in three different sizes – 31mm, 40mm and 43mm with three different dial colors- black blue and green. The dial layout on all the versions is the same with 61 tritium tubes being used as minute and hour markers on the larger variants as opposed to a much smaller number on the 31mm variant. The ladies variant get a dauphine style handset as opposed to a fat rectangular handset for the male variants and there is also a date window at 3 on all watches with the 31mm being devoid of the magnifier.
The watches would be powered by reliable ETA automatic movements; ETA-2824-2 for 43 and 40mm sizes and ETA2671 for the 31mm version. Ball also goes the extra mile by providing extra shock resistance through their patented Amortiser system which comprises of an antimagnetic ring between the movement and the case. Both movements operate at a frequency of 4Hz providing a smooth sweep of the second’s hand. Being workhorse movements, Ball has chosen to keep them hidden under a closed case back which has a deeply stamped with a locomotive motif significant to the brand’s history and helps in maintaining a healthy water resistance of 100 meters.
All said, the Ball Fireman Night Train III is a nice looking sports watch offering from the brand and in case you are really interested in adding one to your collection we would recommend that you pull the trigger soon as the watches are currently available for pre-order at significantly lower prices ($990 for the 40mm and 41mm variants and $1020 for the 31mm version which would only be available on a steel bracelet). The watches would be ready for shipping between December 2018 and January 2019 and would retail at a price of $1540 after the pre-order ends. Visit BALL Watch here.
