Trainmaster

The Trainmaster is the collection through which Ball makes its connection to its railroad origins most explicit: the name celebrates the adoption of standard time on America's railroads, the innovation for which Webb C. Ball's company became a benchmark starting in 1891. The Standard Time variant, presented in 2013 in 18-carat rose gold and joined in 2016 by a more accessible steel version, is the model that best sums up this heritage in a contemporary key.

The baked-enamel dial and the layout with a small seconds subdial directly evoke the utilitarian aesthetic of late-19th-century pocket chronometers — the same category of instruments that passed the strict periodic checks imposed by the "Ball Railroad Approved" standards on the more than 2,300 watches the brand certified for railroad personnel over the course of its history. Here too, consistent with the brand's identity, the hands and indices are illuminated by self-luminous tritium gas microtubes.

The calibre RR1105-C, automatic and COSC chronometer-certified, delivers the precision the Trainmaster name has promised from the start: an explicit tribute, in both design and technical substance, to an era when a watch's punctuality could literally mean the difference between life and death along the tracks.