THE BALL-WALTHAM BROTHERS BLF&E and BLE

June 10, 2012, 17:19

Joseph Pierzynski

Hi All, I was compelled to aquire this fantastic example of a 16size Ball-Waltham BLF&E. The Ball Model Case is very nice, no inscriptions, no brassing, bow is stiff, the watch is all original and the movement appears to have never been removed from the case and has a wonderful pattern back. There are no jewelers inscriptions inside the back cover and has the proper gold BLF&E seal. The movement is absent of any jewelers slips or tarnish and runs fantastic, the balance is true in the flat and round. The BLF&E dial is free of cracks and aside from the tiny flea bit around the center hole it is in fastic condition. The hands are mint, a wonderful plumb color which tops off the dial nicely. I added a few pic's of the BLE I aquired a few months back for your viewing pleasure. regards All Joe

June 10, 2012, 17:19

Joseph Pierzynski

rear cover

June 10, 2012, 17:20

Joseph Pierzynski

face

June 10, 2012, 17:21

Joseph Pierzynski

face 2

June 10, 2012, 17:23

Joseph Pierzynski

movement B206494

June 10, 2012, 17:24

Joseph Pierzynski

inside case cover

June 10, 2012, 17:25

Joseph Pierzynski

BLE

June 10, 2012, 17:26

Robert Lee Milliron

Nice watch. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

June 10, 2012, 17:26

Joseph Pierzynski

BLE movement B0505612 in Ball Model swing out pattern back case

June 10, 2012, 17:29

Joseph Pierzynski

Hi Lindell, please let me know any info you may have about the run of BLFE's this watch fell into serial # wise, maybe # made? Thanks so much

June 10, 2012, 19:07

Lindell V. Riddle

Hello Joe,

Thanks for sharing these, you have two nice ones, the B of LF & E is really, really great. I added the movement numbers in the posts above your movement images, be sure to check and be sure I got them right. The reason to always post the movement number is so it will show up in our searches. We can then find all the information we have about a given movement just by using the IHC185 "Find-Or-Search" feature on our main page.

A point that I must make about Ball watches generally... and this especially true of the Ball-Walthams, they were produced in "mixed-runs" meaning practically anything can show up in a given run. They are scattered about through fifty-nine, yeah that's 59 runs between 1899 and 1922 which makes it more than a little difficult to sort out, but we believe the Brotherhoods stopped during 1912 production. It is also reasonable to believe that Ball-Waltham Brotherhoods were custom fit to order, meaning there were probably not "Brotherhood Runs" as-such and since there are no surviving records from Ball we are left to speculate, and many of us do, but we will never really be able to quantify how many Ball-Waltham Brotherhoods were made. At some point in the near future my plan is to do with these as we did with Ball-Howard, Ball-Hamilton and Ball-Elgin 18-size, that is put up a research forum with chronological history and images. That is when we will try to deal with this in greater detail.

Here is what we can tell you today... The first one shown in your images, the B of LF & E number B206494 is from a mixed run of movements in 1904 which was a high volume year, there were nine runs that year, these watches were very popular, your B206494 would also be among the lowest numbered 21-Jewel movements. Your B of LE number B0505612 is from run numbering B0505501-B506000 which are likely to be 17 and 19-Jewel movements in 1901 production, we believe there were six runs that year. Unfortunately, this is an area where we have far more questions than we will ever have answers. A hundred years ago they paid no attention to all these fine points that matter so very much to us today, they were just selling and servicing watches.

Congratulations, my friend, you have two very nice Ball-Waltham 16-size examples.

Lindell

June 15, 2012, 13:08

Carlos Cons

Great watch! Thanks for sharing really love the colors on the dial.