Ball Watch Big Boy - REVIEW

PROLOGUE (story)

I remember the first time that I saw it. It was bigger than anything I had ever seen. The most powerful I had ever seen. Let me tell you all about it. I was 9 years old, it was a Tuesday morning around 8am and I was woken-up by a deep rumble. I rushed down to find my parents, as I thought an earthquake was happening, but the ground was not shaking, more like a soft rumble, but it was getting louder!

For some reason my father was very excited and when he saw me, he scooped me up in his powerful arms and asked “are you ready to see something special?” I said sure, but I told him that the rumbling was making me scared. He smiled and said “come on, grab your coat”, so I did.

We headed outside where the rumbling was more pronounced and it did not seem to bother my father, in fact it seemed to make him walk faster. I struggled to keep up. Then he stopped and pointed. I looked in the direction he was aiming and all I could see was a far away locomotive coming our way. My father beamed.

I could not understand why. We have seen countless locomotives come by our property on their way to Ogden, Utah, what was so special about this one. So I asked my father why he was so excited, he said “You’ll see Son...” I wondered if the rumbling had something to do with this locomotive. It couldn’t possibly be the locomotive; it was way too far to be making the ground shake... or was it?

Now I was getting curious. As the locomotive was getting closer the rumbling became louder. It was the locomotive! How was that possible? It was still pretty far away! My excitement started to match that of my father’s and I could start making out the front of the locomotive. It sure looked tall. A few moments later, I tried to count the wheels and... Well, it wasn’t possible... This locomotive was impossibly long...

Oh my gosh! It was now close enough to count and I couldn’t believe my eyes. It had a 4 wheel leading truck, then 8 giant drive wheels and then 8 more, followed by 4 small wheels under the trailing truck. It was a 4-8-8-4! How could that be?  I had never seen anything like it in any of the railroad books my father liked to collect.

My father saw the awe in my eyes and that is when he told me all about it. This was an American Locomotive Company 4000-Class 4-8-8-4 articulated, coal-fired steam locomotive. It was over 130 feet long and it weighed a total of 1,250,000 lbs, with its tender. Yes, ONE MILLION TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND pounds! It is no wonder they nicknamed it “Big Boy”.

I will never forget that day.

“I love it when you tell me that story Grandpa!” said little Johnny “Will we get to see a Big Boy at the Train Museum tomorrow?” We sure are, the 4014, but it won’t be there for much longer. “How come?” asked Johnny, sounding a little sad. Well, they are going to restore it and maybe someday this amazing railway giant will come back to life! “Will you take me to see it when it does Grandpa?” Yes, I sure will Johnny, I sure will...

INTRODUCTION

The above story is fiction, but I can imagine how it must have been to see these gargantuan locomotives in action. There were a total of 25 of them in service for the Union Pacific and they really are restoring the 4014.  To find out more about this project, click on the following link:

The Big Boy`s Big Comeback

The subject of this review is the Ball Watch commemoration to this great locomotive and funny enough; an engraving of the 4014 is on its case back! I say funny, as it is completely serendipitous that is exact locomotive is being restored and also featured on the commemoration watch. Here is what Jeff Hess, CEO of Ball Watch USA, had to say about it:

“We just "got lucky". 

I was scouting around for cool projects and came across this iconic Locomotive called "the Big Boy". One of our sales execs told me his dad was V.P. of Union Pacific. He introduced me to his dad, one thing led to another and I thought what a cool name for a 46 mm watch. We made a deal with the U/P/R/R and created the watch. 

THEN the news came out a few months later that the SAME locomotive from the museum was going to be restored for USE! 

Awesome!

Now I have owned, photographed and reviewed countless Ball watches... yes, how sad is that, I have lost count. That being said, this one has to be one of the most special ones. It is part of the Engineer Master II line-up and shares so many design features with its cousins, but it is distinct enough to be a standalone Limited Edition. In fact, it is limited to 999 pieces and mine is 30/999.

Now I know what you are thinking... it is a Pilot`s watch. Yes, yes it is, but is it not perfect for a railroad watch? It is large, clean, accurate and easy to read in all lighting conditions. What more can you ask for? I bet if you were to go back in time (using your steam-powered flux capacitor) and show an old time railway man a pilots watch, he would think it was brilliant! As do I! After all, what is important is the quick / precise reading of time and this design achieves this goal with flying colors, pun intended.

Now on with the review.

CASE & BEZEL

  

  

  

  

The entire 46mm wide case is made of brushed stainless steel. It is generously curved and it shares the same bezel configuration with all the others in this line. It is rather difficult to explain, but this is my 6^th Ball Watch within this family and all I can say is you know it is an Engineer Master II just by looking at it. Just like all the Fireman have the same design cues, as do the hydrocarbon and all the other lines.

There is something about it that makes you think this is a refined watch and that someone took a lot of time carefully brushing all its surfaces. This is not a cookie-cutter case by any stretch of the imagination. Someone took the time and methodically brushed each surface, all the angles and crafted this case with great care. There are no sharp edges, rough corners or unfinished surfaces.

As previously mentioned the screw-down case back is decorated with the engraving of the Big Boy 4014 locomotive. In fact, it is an exact rendering of the 4014 on display in Southern California, including the staircase that allows visitors to pear inside its great belly. The signed crown is also screwed-down and the whole is water-resistant to 100m. While this is not a dive watch rating, it is still plenty enough to allow for swimming. It is also anti-magnetic thanks to the soft iron inner cage that surrounds the movement.

CRYSTAL, DIAL & HANDS

  

  

  

The giant crystal that covers the dial is ever so slightly domed and coated with anti-reflective material on the inside. The latter helps reduce some of the glare, but not all reflections. The dial is very clean and lacks the inner hour chapter ring the Aviator features, instead the Ball Watch branding is larger and just above the 6 o’clock marker there is an applied Union Pacific logo. This is not just some painted on logo, there is actually some depth to it that is very difficult to capture on camera.

The hands are very large and long enough to reach the minute track, which is a pet-peeve of mine. Nothing frustrates me more than enormous dial real-estate and tiny hands. Luckily there is nothing to complain about here.

Speaking of nothing to complain about, let us talk about lume, shall we? This is a T-100 watch, thus it glows like Chernobyl!  Now I am not going to get into the T-25 vs. T-100 thing, as it has been beaten to death and you can find tons of material on the subject. Google is your friend. This watch is a ton of fun in the dark! You can actual read by the light of the dial.

My only complaint about the dial is that I wish the date wheel’s colors were inverted; white writing on black background, instead of the reverse. It would have offset the printing on the other side of the dial and it would have given it a more balanced look. I find this is a issue with many Ball watches and I truly wonder why they do not do anything about it.

MOVEMENT

  

This watch houses the ever popular ETA 2836, which is basically a day-date version of the ETA 2824. Again, Google is your friend. Many more qualified people have written up these workhorse movements, so if you need more details do a little search-a-roo and you will find more information that you can shake a stick at.

As for the performance, mine has been a consistent +4 seconds / day since day one. No breaking in period, nothing. Just bang on solid performance. This is terrific, as it is not COSC certified and it just goes to show that Ball must regulate their watches before sending them out. I have owned a tremendous amount of timepieces with these movements and not all are created equal, I assure you.

BRACELET

  

  

  

Unlike Ball’s Aviator watches, I prefer this one on its steel bracelet. In fact, I find the bracelet design very railroad inspired, with alternating lines on the inner and outer links. It is perfect for this watch and somewhat “odd” on the Pilot’s watches, which should be worn on leather. It is thick and extremely supple, with screws for adjusting the size. The end-links are solid, like on all Ball Watches and the clasp a hidden double-deployant, which is very comfortable to wear.

I feel this bracelet goes with this watch just like a nice chain goes with a railroad pocket-watch. It is the perfect combination for this tribute watch, in my opinion of course.

CONCLUSION

  

  

  

Ball Watch has recently made many successful Limited Edition railroad inspired watches, like the Canadian Railway Time Service and many others, but to my knowledge, this is the first outside of the Fireman collection. This move is quite a step up, as the Engineer Master II collection is much more refined and there is quite a bit more attention to detail.

I truly feel this is a worthy tribute for this incredible locomotive and just like Johnny in the story above; I look forward to the day the Big Boy runs again. Until then, I will proudly wear my Ball Watch Big Boy and smile every time I look for the time.

By the way, the tiny arm in the above wrist shot is that of my 10 year old son Alexi. After reading the prologue story he wants to go back to the Exporail Museum again. It would be our third visit.

Thank you for reading,

Ball Watch

Zenith Stratos Alchron Flyback - GALLERY

As far as sports styled chronographs are concerned, it does not get much better than this:

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures courtesy of Canwatchco.ca and if you are interested in purchasing this incredible timepiece, you can find it here:

Zenith Stratos for sale on Canwatchco.ca

Breguet Transatlantique Type XXI Flyback - GALLERY

WHAT A STUNNING WATCH!

  

 

 

 

 

Pictures are courtesy of Canwatchco.ca and if you are interested in this watch, it happens to be for sale here:

Breguet Transatlantique for sale on Canwatchco.ca

The BIG BOY's BIG comeback!

HEAR YE HEAR YE, READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Union Pacific Railway is undertaking the movement and restoration of one of the world's largest steam locomotives! Have a look:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/big-boy-locomotive-begins-california-farewell-tour-22045215

http://www.up.com/aboutup/special_trains/steam/locomotives/4014.shtml

It was also in the Wall Street Journal:

 

And why is this horologically significant? Because one of my very favorite watch brands has a model that honor's this very locomotive. A brand with a rich history in U.S. Railway lore. I am speaking of none other than Ball Watch and here is the Big Boy commemorative Limited Edition timepiece:

 

This model is limited to 999 pieces worldwide. It is offered on leather strap or stainless steel bracelet and like its namesake, it is no slouch in the size department at 46mm in diameter. It features Ball's famous GTLS lumination, a Swiss Mechanical date/date movement and an incredible engraving of the Big Boy on its case back.

For more details on this Super Cool watch follow the link below!

Ball Watch

My history with Tudor and the new Pelagos

In the early 1990’s, pre-internet, my watch collecting was limited to what I was able to find locally. Unfortunately, in Montreal “limited” is the imperative word, especially at that time. That said, there was this wonderful store down-town called York International that dealt in pre-owned watches and was very willing to trades. Now that I think of it, it is their fault I am a watch flipper… hum…

Anyway, I was a little tired of my Tag Heuer S/EL watch and wanted something different so I popped into York International to see what they had to offer. Nothing really caught my eye except this shockingly HUGE blue diver by a brand I had never heard of. Tudor  Submariner. What is a Tudor. Gus, my enabler, went on to explain that it was made by Rolex and instead of Rolex movements, they use ETA movements. At the time, all this meant nothing to me and I said “so it doesn’t use batteries?”

Here is a picture of the model I had: (but mine had a solid Oyster bracelet)

 

Pictures found on Internet, not my watch

By today’s standards, it is relatively small, but back in the early 90’s a 40mm watch with a giant protruding acrylic crystal was HUGE, especially compared to my mid-size Tag Heuer S/EL., which would be considered a ladies watch today.  I had to have it, so I did the trade. Hey, you cannot blame Gus for this trade, those Tags were starting to sell like hot cakes and that vintage Tudor had been sitting there a while. Remember, this is pre-internet.

So I wore that watch for a bit and it pissed me off to no end that the crystal scratched so easily. I also did not like the fact that it was tremendously inaccurate. I do not remember what the deviation was, but I was used to quartz and having to reset the time every other week drove me nuts. I wound up trading it for a two-toned quartz Tag 2000 Chronograph a few weeks later. If I would have known that the Tudor would be worth so much today and the Tag so little… ah… hindsight is always…. Sh….t

Anyway, I spent most of that year trading watches with the good folks at York (now called Matt Baileys), until I had almost every interesting watch they sold.  Thinking I had reached the end of the road and again, at the time, no one else dealt in watches in this fashion in Montreal. I kept on purchasing the odd Seiko and Citizen, until I spotted a private seller in the local classifieds (yes newspaper) selling a Tudor Oysterdate for 400$.

I met the guy at a coffee shop (dunkin’ donuts) and fell in love with this one right away. It was all SS with a silver face and an integrated oyster style bracelet. Like my previous Tudor it had an acrylic crystal, but it did not protrude half as much as the Submariner did and by then I had discovered Polywatch. This is still pre-internet.  I offered him 250$ and we agreed to 300$.

Here are a couple of snaps of this watch:

 

Pictures found on Internet, not my watch

I was very pleased with this one and wore it for almost 2 years without having the urge for something else. In fact, I wore this watch on my wedding day! Then I discovered the internet and a watch seller in the U.S. that many people know with a bulldog for a logo. They had a Kreiger Tidal Chronometer I just had to have. It was so darn cool! I emailed them and offered my Tudor for this watch… I said I found the internet, not commonsense! Of course, they accepted and you know what? I liked it!

Then the real flipping started! Still in the 90’s, I then stumbled onto TimeZone.com and then the sales corners on TimeZone and WatchNet, which were completely separate entities at the time. Those were the days! When real collectors, passionate connoisseurs, shared their knowledge and watches are still very reasonably priced. Heck a Seamaster Professional could be had for under 900$ pre-owned and Rolex Submariner Dates were going for under 2000$! Cool Oris divers for under 500$ and Revue Thommen Airspeeds for 400$. Oh and Minerva had sweet manual wind watches for next to nothing!

Fast forward a half a decade later and in the early 2000’s I wound up with a Tudor Hydronaut. I honestly do not remember what I sold in order to by this one brand new, but the U.S. dollar was so strong that I sold a pre-owned watch in U.S. funds and the conversion into Canadian made it so I had enough to buy a brand new Tudor Hydronaut!

This watch was very nice looking, with amazing angles, hands, dial and case. The bracelet however left much to be desired. I had already owned 50 or so watches with much better bracelets and clasps, so this one really turned me off. That said, it was very comfortable and the size was nice, not to mention it was very accurate.  

Here is a review I did of this watch: Tudor Hydronaut Review

Now fast forward another decade and here we are today. The internet watch landscape could not be any more different. It is not any better or worse, just so vastly spread out. I still see some of the names that have been around as long as I have, but for the most part it is all new. Instead of one main forum where everyone talks about watches, now we have focused / brand specific forums and theme specific forums. And these individual forums each have more members than the old boards had all together.

It is nice seeing so many people enjoying fine timepieces, but at the same time, it is difficult to swallow the prices watches are fetching these days. While I understand currency exchange rates, supply / demand and innovation / technology, I just feel that people’s salaries have not gone up in equal measure. So the affordable has become unreachable for many. Of course, many boutique suppliers have seen to this and now offer products to fill the void. Now imagine if that did not happen? Where would be the watch industry without the boutique brands? Hum…

Anyway, this is not about the state of the watch industry, it is about Tudor and my very latest is this uncanny Pelagos, which I acquired last week. I kind of jumped on this one on a whim and did not really know what to expect. I had seen and read many great things about this watch, but had yet to see one in person. Well, I was immediately floored.

Here are some pics of my watch this time:

The dial has to be one of the most legible I have ever seen.  I do not even mind the black on white date display, as it counter balances the large minute marker on the other side of the dial. The hands are large and clean. The print is perfect and the ceramic bezel is exquisite. The mat ceramic is spectacular and the action is to die for. Really, it is! I read it rides on bearings of some sort, well it feels like it does. No other dive watch has ever been this smooth, precise and solid.

The case is also very well finished with beveled edges in brushed titanium, except the caseback, which is stainless steel. The latter adds a little weight to the head to counter balance the steel clasp. It is so very, very well thought out.  Speaking of the clasps, this one is stupendous! It is as if the engineers / designers at Tudor said “let’s take everything we know about dive watch clasps and throw it in the garbage. Let’s start fresh”. So they did!

The result is incredibly impressive indeed. The features include a ratcheting micro-adjustment system, a diver’s extension with spring-loaded slide adjustment and ceramic bearings to keep things shut tight. It is the most sophisticated non-push-button clasp I have ever seen and it feels so darn good manipulating it. The rest of the bracelet is solid titanium with standard Rolex style screws for adjustments.

I am not sure if I just got lucky or if all of these watches are regulated this way, but mine has only lost 2 seconds in the 7 days I have owned it. This is well beyond chronometer specs and blows away all of my other automatic watches. The crown is also titanium and has the same multiple gasket system as the Rolex Submariner. It also features an integrated has escape valve at 9 o’clock and in case you forget what the dot on the side case is for, it is actually printed “gas escape valve” on the valve.

I did not write all this to review the watch, though I guess I did a little… lol… I just wanted to share my journey in Tudorland and to say they have come a very long way and rightfully deserve all of the recent praise.

I hope you enjoyed the read and pictures.

Tudor

RECOMMENDATION - CANWATCHCO.CA

I do not normally endorse other websites or forums / communities, as I visit and participate on most, but this one is very special. It is owned and run by Bobby Moscovitch, a real stand up guy that offers a wonderful oasis for us Canadians to trade, buy and sell our beloved watches.

Click on pic to follow the link to canwatchco.ca

If you are in Canada and would like to deal with like minded collectors within our borders, this is THE destination for you! I have bought, sold and traded at least a dozen watches with members from this community and they have all been flawless transactions.

On a side note, Bobby often gets his hands on amazing treasures and offers tremendous pricing and exceptional service. If you see one of his watches for sale, jump on it, you will not be disappointed!

HAPPY HUNTING!