What is your opinion on Ball Watches.

I have a real problem with brands that used to be American. They have a niche with the tritium and anyone who thinks they are expensive must be assuming that people pay MSRP. Were I into giant tool watches, I'd like them. 

I don't know, somehow their design just doesn't speak to me, especially those dials with big blocky tritium tube numerals...

Didn't knew of that Turn O Graph. Looked it up. Really liked the idea! It was a nice twist from what we are used to see!

I have 3 Ball Watches - the more conservative designs. 1 Marvelight in blue, the one in the picture, and one dressy trainmaster with white enamel dial.

Understand what you are saying. I don't like that design either. I like the more conservative approach they have - like the skindivers, the marvelights and the trainmasters.

I love the new Engineer iii Marvelights. Chronometer certified, 1000 gauss, 904L steel. I think they are amazing value for money but I think they must suffer from lack of marketing or something similar because you never see that many of them around. 

I love them!! I had some traded them but I still have one. I love them…

I think Ball is so close with their current offerings but something in their designs just feels like it needs refining. It has several rugged and elegant elements that just don't go together in my opinion. The fancy signed counterweight kinda clashes with the chunky bracelet and tritium tunes. 

That said I really like what they offer functionally and the design is so close to being great

My DNA agrees with me that generally keeping anything that emits nuclear radiation/particles away from it (no matter how low level) is probably a good idea.  I'll pass on tritium and stick to inert superluminova.

I agree their more conservative designs are what speak to me. I have a couple of Trainmasters which have less blocky, more elegant tritium lume. 

Well, there are apparently a whopping three US sellers, one of which has been reported to openly share his displeasure with the brand's product.

https://thetruthaboutwatches.com/2020/09/ball-watches-how-not-to-sell-a-watch/

They guy who wrote that text should've gone to this site:

BALL Watch Online Boutique

Yes, I looked that the Ball website it is not always updated compared to the online shop. I bought 2 via their online shop and 1 via iguana sell that are ADs. Gnomon is also an AD for Ball. As I said, I have 3 Ball watches, they haven't failed me... yet.

I’m curious about them. Don’t know if it would make it into my daily rotation though…

I'm waiting for one of my bicycles to sell then I'm getting one. 

The ones I handled felt underwhelming. Maybe I handled the wrong ones, dunno, but without the right ones in sight, my "meeehhhh" opinion of them stands.

I have three Ball watches, and am happy with them.  I’ve never had any quality or operational issues.  The thing I like about the automatics I have are that the movements are based on ETA 2892, which is one I have had great experiences with owning previously.  Additionally, my automatics have the mechanical thermostat complication, TMT, which I have only seen on Ball watches.

IMHO the biggest problems at Ball are ownership and management.  The product line is cluttered, with too many redundancy issues.  There are constant  ‘limited editions’ that further clutter the offerings.  Worse, the limited editions are often pay now and it’ll be delivered in 6-8 months.  If the catalog was streamlined production would be more aligned to sales.

Marketing is not coordinated in a manner equal to other companies.  Their Facebook page used to have a really great person doing outreach.  That person may still be there, but I am not on Facebook anymore so I can’t say. Other than that, there are not enough ADs.  But I blame Ball itself for lack of a dealer network for three reasons.  First, the brand does not protect itself in a value sense because Ball watches are often available at steep discount prices on the grey market (especially at Jomashop), which erodes perceived value and quality of the brand.  Second, and related to my previous comments about the catalog bloat, it would be hard for an AD to match customer to watch based on stocking problems (specifically which watches to stock out of the bloated catalog).  Third, because there is not a robust AD network, the Ball web site is probably doing more sales than an AD is likely to get so why invest too much effort in pushing the brand.

I like Ball watches.  But I also feel that the best thing that could happen to Ball is for the brand to be sold to more attentive ownership group that has building the brand as a goal.  New ownership would hopefully bring new, more efficient and effective management.

They are ok. I see potential.

I had this one, but unfortunately it just had too many high polished surfaces, which is no good on the railway, which is funny, that's what Ball makes watches for. I would definitely buy another, possibly when I retire and not have to worry about it been knocked around.

Need an option for "I think they are well made, but nothing ever speaks to me style-wise"

I’ll lead with, I don’t care where a watch is made or who owns the company as long as it’s well made. I do care if there is something inauthentic about the brand, how it’s run, or it’s story. This leads me to Ball.

By most accounts these are well made good looking watches, albeit likely over priced at MSRP, but let’s be honest, no one is (or should be) paying that for a Ball.

My issue with the brand is their consistent, less-than-forthcoming attitude about being a Chinese owned brand and how much of the brand is truly Swiss, especially since the same parent owns them and a couple other smaller brands based out of the same building, with a manufacturing arm and company headquarters in China. Yes, their main .com site is also a .ch, which most can figure out, but one will find nothing about their ownership on the site. They rely on their “heritage” of a dead brand to sell modern watches (many others are equally guilty of this). They block social media users for bringing it up or questioning how much of the watch is made where, and frequently edit the wiki page to omit any link to Chinese ownership. Affiliates don’t discuss any link to the parent company or sister brands and reviewers are asked to accentuate the Swiss-ness of the brand. Watch how over the top Bruce William’s does so in his video. Other users report Teddy actively deletes questions about the brand whenever he posts a vid on his drop shipping channel. That type of behavior just never sits right with me.

While WCJ and WUS should be taken with a grain of salt most of the time, there are countless threads with research and experiences including owners being told their replacement parts are coming from Hong Kong. I’m also not naive enough to think all “Swiss Made” are actually that, but most brands are far more forthright.

Again, many, maybe most, may not or will not care, and while I don’t live and die by heritage alone, I don’t like when companies are shady and actively do all they can to stop discourse.

My inner child is 12 so… hehehe ball… ballsssss.

I just can’t take the name seriously, Ball, really?? Meh…

They look very durable to me. Lots of new tech I'd like to get into in my 50's.

Their entry level watch looks great for the price and makes a good daily beater. The higher prices pieces may not hold as much value in my opinion. I own a basic Fireman model and it took quite a few knocks for more than a decade but it still runs well. Unfortunately the tritium had lost its lume so replacing them needs to cost me about USD$150.

I’m very hit or miss with Ball.  Like others, I enjoy the more conservative models but others leave me scratching my head to how they made it through the design process.  Generally I don’t care for their bracelet design.  
 

I own a 38.5mm Trainmaster “60 seconds” Titanium that I wear on a canvas strap and I enjoy it quite a bit.  Purchased used.

I think they are great watches but the competition at the price point is really tough. And for the money the designs don't speak to me as much. Its like they are simple but not in a Nomos way rather in a little boring way. I mean I get it its a tool watch but if you look at Sinn they manage to pull that of perfectly without being boring 

Had the opportunity to try on a couple of Ball watches at Jura in Leeds.   I think the dials are super cool and quirky in the best way!  However,  the bracelets are odd, uncomfortable and really unappealing imo.

hehe the Ballskin Diver.

I can't get into most of the designs, and the one that I do like (the Skin-diver) fit me like it was made of legos.

I like the Engineer iii Marvelights but I hate cyclops. I spend a bit of time trying to find one that checked all my boxes, and the more time I spent, the more frustrated I became. As mentioned earlier, they need to consolidate thier catalog. 

I just remembered that they made a pocket watch a year or two ago that suffered from  a couple odd design decisions. I already have more pocket watches than I can justify, but I really want somebody to be a reputable maker of them and Ball fits the bill.

But, as I said, the styling department didn't really get a slam dunk.

I recently purchased a pre-owned Trainmaster Worldtime and thoroughly enjoy it. It's beautiful and I get a lot of positive comments about it.