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Questions about Ball RR wrist watches "Click" to Login or Register 
IHC Member 1369
posted
I have two Ball stainless steel wristies and am looking for info about these in particular and the Ball ww in general. I have found a few comments and pics while searching this site but can't find much in the way of serial number/manufacturing date and other details about these. So, I'm hoping the experts will chime in either with web resources and/or personal comments and info.

From what I have read so far I believe that the dials are correct. Both are manual wind. Serial numbers are 225326 and 108705. I need to get better photos but I'll see if I can attach photos in the next posts.

How do the backs and crystals come off? They both show some wear from useage and if I am going to keep these they will need cleaning and new crystals on both. Both are currently working but I have not timed them.

Thanks for any info.
Ralph
 
Posts: 542 | Location: Ontario in Canada | Registered: February 10, 2010
IHC Member 1369
posted
first Ball #225326

 
Posts: 542 | Location: Ontario in Canada | Registered: February 10, 2010
IHC Member 1369
posted
second Ball #108705

 
Posts: 542 | Location: Ontario in Canada | Registered: February 10, 2010
Picture of Donald E. Jones
posted
Ralph,
I have a stainless Ball wristie just like yours which I bought new in about 1980. I was working for Cotton Belt RR at the time, and traded in an Accutron Quartz for the Ball. I really thought I was something with a self-winding Ball while most everyone else had gone to Seikos. I never knew of anyone else who bought a new Ball after I bought mine. My watch's S/N is 226463. Like most watches, the back simply screws off, and the crystal just snaps in. Your second picture shows a black leather strap, which is correct. My watch had a plain black leather strap with a white metal buckle when new.


D. E. Jones
 
Posts: 73 | Location: Sulphur Springs, Texas USA | Registered: June 29, 2006
IHC Member 1369
posted
Donald, thanks for the info. Both of my serial numbers are earlier than yours.

Would you [or anyone else] happen to know if manual winds and self/automatic winds were mixed into production runs or if Ball stopped making manual winds at some point prior to your #226xxx?

Ralph
 
Posts: 542 | Location: Ontario in Canada | Registered: February 10, 2010
Picture of Donald E. Jones
posted
Ralph,
I don't know, but I doubt that both types were made at the same time. I do have a gold Ball Trainmaster that is older than my stainless watch with serial number 992 276 ( not a typo, the number has a space in it ). I wonder if the gold case watches had a different batch of numbers.


D. E. Jones
 
Posts: 73 | Location: Sulphur Springs, Texas USA | Registered: June 29, 2006
IHC Member 163
Picture of Mark Cross
posted
I will always have fond memories of seeing models of those Ball stainless wristies lined up in a row for sale in our local railroad watch inspectors shop window back in the 60's and early 70's. Smile

Wish I had paid more attention to them, though. I was more interested in railroad pocket watches at the time. Frown

Regards! Mark
 
Posts: 3831 | Location: Estill Springs, Tennessee, USA | Registered: December 02, 2002
posted
Who actually assembled Ball wristwatches? Was it like the pocket watches where Hamilton and Waltham did the assembly?
 
Posts: 77 | Location: Hartford, Connecticut in the USA | Registered: August 11, 2010
IHC President
Life Member
Picture of Lindell V. Riddle
posted

POST 1 OF 2...

Donald, you are right, the different cases use differing number systems.

Gee Mark, I sure wish I could have seen that display!

Good question Bill,

The Ball Automatic ORRS wristwatches used "ETA" movements and "A. Shield" powered their manual wind examples. They may have all been cased and timed at the Ball facility in Cleveland which was true of all their pre-WWII pocket watches and perhaps for some time subsequently as well. This unusual practice allowed Ball to be categorized as a "manufacturer" which was important to the rules for acceptance in Railroad Time Service which did not allow the use of "Private-Label" watches. It is important to differentiate between "assembly" of movements versus "cased and timed" as completed watches. We have reason to believe that Ball was doing the latter beginning in the early 1890s and at least toward the mid-20th Century.

On the 1976 list below you'll see the Ball ORRS 25-Jewel Trainmaster. It's the second one under "Wristwatches" and the first one is the A. Shield manual wind I referred to above, both are rugged and reliable.


Check over this Burlington Northern Approved listing...


 
Posts: 10553 | Location: Northeastern Ohio in the USA | Registered: November 19, 2002
IHC President
Life Member
Picture of Lindell V. Riddle
posted

POST 2 OF 2...

Many of us prefer the 25-Jewel Official RR Standard Trainmaster as a high quality, cost effective automatic. In a Stainless Steel case like Ralph's and the one shown on right below they will Wink outlast most of us.

Those are my thoughts, let's hear yours!

Lindell


Ball Trainmasters are among my personal favorites...


 
Posts: 10553 | Location: Northeastern Ohio in the USA | Registered: November 19, 2002
posted
Was the dial on the right a Canadian dial? I actually have a gold cased watch with the 24 hour dial.

Jim
 
Posts: 67 | Location: Central Ohio in the USA | Registered: July 01, 2011
IHC President
Life Member
Picture of Lindell V. Riddle
posted

Yes Jim,

The one shown on the right in my May 14th 2011 post is a correct 24-hour dial, it was sold across North America in both the US and Canada. So you have the case shown on the left with the dial shown on the right. Sounds like a really nice combination.

Lindell

Wink
 
Posts: 10553 | Location: Northeastern Ohio in the USA | Registered: November 19, 2002
posted
Thanks Lindell. Here is a photo. I was not sure when (or if) 24 hour dials were used in the US. The case is in pretty good shape except where someone gouged it trying to get the back off at some point.

Jim

 
Posts: 67 | Location: Central Ohio in the USA | Registered: July 01, 2011
IHC Life Member
posted
Here's an ETA 2821 based automatic, SN 938791. Can anyone date it?


Kenneth Sloan


 
Posts: 222 | Location: Alabama in the USA | Registered: February 01, 2014
IHC Life Member
Moderator
Picture of Donald Trumble
posted
Ken,

If you carefully read Lindell's and Mark's posts above in this topic you will see these are late 1960s through the 1970s items. Lindell even posted a Ball Railtoad Time Service list from December 1976 listing their railroad approved watches.

You might want to print that document to keep with your watch.

Don
 
Posts: 504 | Location: Pennsylvania in the USA | Registered: April 02, 2005
IHC Life Member
posted
Thank you for your reply. I have read *all* of the posts in this thread ("carefully" may be debatable). I saw the Ball Railroad Time Service memo saying that this model was in service on the Burlington Northern in 1976. I was hoping for a bit finer grain dating from SN -> production date. "late 1960's through the 1970's" is a fairly wide range. I was hoping for something more precise.

I guess I've been spoiled by the excellent databases available for POCKET watches (at least from some manufacturers).


Kenneth Sloan
 
Posts: 222 | Location: Alabama in the USA | Registered: February 01, 2014
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