The Problem I Used to Have with BALL 

I’ve had a Ball watch for 12 years now. I like to wear my watch while sleeping at night so I can check the time if I wake up in the middle of the night. The lume is not as bright as the day I got it, but after an hour or so in total darkness it’s still brighter than my Rolex, Omega, Seiko and Grand Seiko. All lume fades over time. The lume on my ‘90s Rolex is barely legible through the night now. The useful like of the tritium tubes is probably longer than the useful life of superluminova or lumabright.

Tritium watches glow for 24 years, but Ball gives the WARRANTY just for 10 years

My ball is 21 years old… I just had to change the dial with the gas tube, not because the lume was out (weaker but still working) was defective but the dial was lose. That said, 21 years diving, hiking and most important hunting (night) is really a sturdy reliable watch. The accuracy is just so so (losing 2 minutes per month which require a little adjust once a month). Said that I love it. I use it in extreme environment (welding , shocks, dirt, sand, sea, sun and heat: never failed me. My best investment so far. As a daily, if I had to purchase it again, no hesitation!

I’ve had new Rolex’s that I can’t see the dial for crap in the dark. Most of those did have diamonds for markers, but I’m sitting in a movie theater thinking, “I just spent stupid money for a watch I can’t see the dark”. I like and enjoy my Ball.

One of my favorite watches in my collection are my Ball's... If I'm going out at night I almost always select a Ball...! That tritium lume that glows continuosly is awesome, no worries about reading these watches.... If the tritium gets weak over time Ball can replace no problem.... Ball's are great reliable, well built watches... Underrated really

My ball engineer master II is 7 years old, and it glows like its noones business. Especially at night when your eyes got used to dark - readability is fantastic.

Dude, tritium lume is great and will last way longer than 10 years. My marathons lume is still highly legible after 13 years. It’s also the only lume suited for military or long periods under darkness where white light is unavailable.

no way! the main reason to pick this is the lume

Kyle, as you can see from the majority of the comments here, your main concern about the lume diminishing over (a long) time is not really a practical reason for dismissing this really unique brand with an alluring horological history. I own four Balls (here come the jokes), two of which are over 15 years old. Yes, their lume has diminished since I first bought them; it's noticable. However, I can STILL read the time in my blacked out bedroom at 4am with these older Balls.... I cannot say the same about ANY brand new watch with luminous charging paint that was charged 5 hours earlier. The practicality of the tritium tubes is unmatched for reading the time in the dark! Moreover, I have not had ANY issues with the reliability of the movements, the water resistance, and fit and finish. These are true tool watches with a unique look and exceptional quality for the price. Nothing feels better than towards the end of a 2.5 hour movie at the theater, comparing my Ball's lume to that of my friend's Rolex. 😁 There's a reason I've bought 4 of them over the years, and why you've received so many comments rejecting your main negative about this brand. Maybe it's time YOU got on the Ball? 😉 Good video otherwise about this best near luxury quality value brand. 👍

Update (08/07/2022): Ball hasn't 'dropped the ball'. The state of the lume is not as bad as I thought. Yes, the gas tubes will fade over time but will probably still be brighter than traditional lume. I will say that it (the gas tubes) remains more complex to service than merely the re-paint for superluminova. Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it. Cheers.

The 10 years is the usual service interval. Tritium has a half-life of 12.3 years, meaning after 12 years it will glow half as bright as when it was new, after 24, a quarter. Using your own number saying it glows 100x as bright, it will take 82 years before it glows as bright as normal loom.

The tritium tubes were one of my concerns too when I bought my first Ball watch just yesterday. But then I calculated that if the tritium has a half life of about 12 years, there will still be about 1/4 of it in 24 years, with years to go. So my concerns faded away.

My Ball watches are all over 10 years and have not lost any lume.

My beef with Ball watches is the lack of ADs in Canada.

Even tho im broke atm, I plan to buy a Ball Trainmaster. Just want to have a good tritium watch, and Ball has best offers in that field.

I've been wearing watches with tritium lume for more than 10 years. But I have never worn one watch for more than 10 years. Heck if I wear it for more than 5 years can be considered as very good. Usually by year 3 or 4 I would be looking at another watch. Tritium gives around 10 years of useable brightness. But normal lume can't even last a few hours (on 1 normal charge with useable brightness). Most of my normal lume (eg. Superluminova) watches don't even give me 20 min of useable lume on a 'normal' charge. Normal being just wearing it throughout the day and in the office (fluorescent lighting). I can get out of the train at night and walk down a not very bright path and I hardly can read the time with normal lume. I usually have to read it off of street lighting. Personally, I don't think most people will wear a watch for more than 10 years. Chances are they will probably buy a new watch way before the tritium fades to the point of not bright enough. But of course, everyone has their take on it. And this is just my personal opinion. End of the day, to me, a watch (non smartwatch) needs to have these 2 things. Accurate time keeping and legibility at all times,... even in the dark. EDIT: Don't compare using normal lume charged with UV light. That is not practical. No one uses a UV light to charge their watch lume before reading the time. And fluorescent lighting does not activate/charge normal lume as well as UV light. And the only time a person is under UV light (normally speaking) is in the daytime, out under the sun.

The ball engineer armor three has some super advanced shock protection built in. More than any other entry level Swiss watch. Shock resistance is very under appreciated in modern mechanicals.

10 years of Half life...it means that in 10 years the lume as lost half its brightness. However the case for ball is more or less 25 years until the tritium markers become unreadable. Normal lume doesn't stay bright forever, the paint decays probably in the same rate as tritium... so, no problem there.

No lume lasts forever.

The lum last 20 yrs , not 10 yrs. Do your homework.

I have trituim tubes on a 12 year old watch. They just dont glow as bright as new. Still legible in darkness. They dont stop glowing all of a sudden its a slow process.

I completely disagree that Ball should steer away from Tritium (which is actually what sets them apart from most brands - other than Marathon.) For those who work in the dark and need precise time - tritium is completely unmatched. I think it makes sense with the roots in the Railroad. ...If anything, they need to improve their bracelets. Nobody wants a clasp that only presses into place. Add buttons and better micro adjust and they'll be truly exceptional.

The tritium tubes are the reason why I am considering getting one. I want to see the time in complete darkness at any time.

This is the first video I have watched on your channel... ...I think your point is mute. Actually, down right incompetent when it comes knowledge of the brand and technology...

Not a deal breaker for me… ten years is plenty

If they have been in business for over 100 years, chance is that they will stay in business. I would not have an issue sending in my Ball watch for dial replacement after 10 years.

Just like an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs, so thus after 25 years, a Ball tritium watch will only become... a watch.

I recently purchased the Engineer III Marvelight Chronometer with the Ice Blue dial that I’m very pleased with, it really is a thing of beauty and for me ticks all the boxes. The concern I have, the ownership of the company along with the smoke and mirrors surrounding how much of the watch is “Swiss made” As this was my first Ball I did my research on the watches spec, reading endless reviews and took on face value what looked to be a Swiss made watch by a Swiss/American owned watch company, only to discover later, it is actually Chinese owned (Asia Commercial Holdings Limited) and the question over how Ball treads a fine line as to whether their watches can be classed as Swiss made. I honestly don’t have an issue with Chinese people, what I do have a problem with is how much of the company and my money goes to fund the CCP and their human rights abuses. If I were to make the choice again with this knowledge, I would have thought long and hard about making such a purchase. I know it’s almost impossible not to buy something that supports the Chinese government nowadays but I do like to have the knowledge to make that decision and when possible I choose not to.

I've just purchased a BALL TRAINMASTER ROMAN and the charge of the trinitan used is 25 years so I don't know where he gets 10 years from plus there are other watches that use trinitan.

Mate you’ve got it wrong.

I have a couple of Ball watches and the trainmaster cleavland express is over 13 years old and it still glows brilliantly

So in 10 years it’ll have the same lume in the middle of the night as my brand new omega from day 1. I’d rather have 10 years of being able to see it in the dark.

I personally plan on owning this watch for life since I got it engraved, honestly it'll cost less then 400 total for it to be replaced (definitely thought about the cost of maintenance before getting this piece as I'm not BALLin lol). I got it $1979 including a custom engraving and the retail for one of these is usually $2500.

My thoughts are, nothing lasts forever. Luminous paint will also fade, but I understand the concern that the dial has to be replaced to get the lume replaced. I have a limited edition Trainmaster 130 Anniversary. This model only has 999 total produced and have the watches number in the run on the dial near the 9 o’clock position. It makes me wonder if it’s possible to replace at all. However, I bought the watch for the dial, and the lume is just an added bonus, so if it burns out in 20 or so years And I can’t get it replaced I’m ready to accept that. I will say that I’m not keen on the models that have numbers built out of tritium tubes. I’d rather have a watch that will not feel like half its use is gone if the lume dies, and having 50 tritium tubes basically means I’m buying a watch mostly for lume. I will say, I have a Hamilton and love it, but the lume is the worse ever. Basically not even there. Lol. So I mostly buy watches for their accuracy and attractive dials. I also live near the registered Ball service center in the Dallas area so there is some convenience to that.

I yhink you misunderstood... the tubes are warranted to not dimm for 10 years. But it will work for much much longer than that, 20 years at least, starting to slowly but steadily loose its brightness after ~10 years, but being completely dimm after decades. So you dont have yo change the dial after 10 years.

I have a Ball Mad cow, watch, with the premium ETA movement. It's been brilliant, I wanted to sell it because,as a pensioner, I can no longer afford the service costs. But, no one will buy it, it's worthless in the UK.

Your problem is your understanding of the life of the tritium tubes that have a 10 year half life - so after 10 years the tubes glow half as bright and after 20 year the be 25% as bright, which should still allow the watch to be useable at night.

Have you ever kept a watch beyond 10 years? My line on older watches is nearly useless.

Well, if it stops glowing in 10 years, that’s not a major issue for me. These are beautiful, well made watches at a reasonable price… Excellent review.. Cheers!

All they need is to hybridize the lume with the glass capsules. Paint the lume on under and the perimeter….solved

I’m not into the tritium tubes myself, not keen on the brightness degrading overtime and eventually needing replacement but since that is a key feature of their watches I don’t see them going away from it. I do like the internal bezel diver that came out recently and if I can get one at a decent discount I will pick one up. Honestly I’m not too fond of most of their designs but that’s my personal taste.

Ball is one of the truly great brands I've ever seen.

Mine's 12 years old still legible at night 👍🏻

The tritium lume is a major selling point for Ball, and what distinguishes the brand from others that make essentially the same watches. To suggest they make a conventionally lumed watch is silly.

You’re wrong. The life of the tritium tubes is conservative 25 years to dim at 50.

One thing I really don't like about Ball is their sizes, the lune doesn't really matter to me. If they made the Marvel Engineer 3 in a 36mm variant I would snap one up right away lol

also like under a 100 to get em replaced

The bracelet is what I dislike about Ball.

This is an understandable concern. I own an engineer 3. Ten years of the kind of luminescence that ball has is more than fair. Mechanical watches need to be serviced every five to eight years if worn and depending on the price of the replacement dial, this could be an issue but I do not know this yet. There is nothing in the market that comes close to this luminescence. I was expecting a more serious issue that I have seen with their case back designs that completely get certain military units completely wrong. I have reached out to them numerous times and they simply do not care about honoring these units and prefer to get profits from it.

Come on you probably haven't even kept a watch for 10 years.

What is the half life of LumiNova? Some say infinite - hard to believe .The tritium is replaceable, by an independent watch service if you really ever needed it. The military still prefers GTLS for its all-night capability.

Usually it is about 12 years half life(brightness)

Dude everything needs maintenance LOL even the spaceship need that

I guess that Ball would provide some replacing service.

Your basic premise is flawed. The glow lasts far longer than 10 years. The half life of tritium is over 12 years.

Agree 100% 👍

I agree totally!! I forgot about this aspect of their watches so now they are off of my to get list.

there are plaenty other higher priced watches that dont even use long lasting painted lume. your dislike is so minor . its like you made this video for content revenue. you missed so many points on the Ball watch vs the other brands that charge 10- 100 ♥times more with same quality

they say 20 years!

I understand your concern about the lume fading at 12 years. When you look at Super lumanova the life span of that is 10 to 15 years.... so when u compare tritium gas tubes to other lumen you will be replacing it at the same time interval

for me its the logo at the end of seconds hand. i hate it.

Meh, half life of the tritium tubes is 7 years (half as bright in 7 years, and half again in 7 years, etc) so your math doesn’t quite work out. $400 CAD was the cost for replacing the tritium tubes one of the local watch club members paid, no dial replacement. I think they offer exceptional value propositions, elevated standards of finishing and movements and an intriguing history. Interesting perspective, not entirely as informative as I had hoped.

Honestly thought I was going to be watching a video about their godawful second hands.

100% agree! My ball watch is nowhere near 10 years old & it’s already faded considerably, along with mysteriously randomly stopping. All of this started happening shortly after the warranty expired. I find this a seriously overpriced hunk of polished stainless steel. This was my grail watch & it’s nothing more than a lemon now.

Do some research

BIG ISSUE....

The Ball name was purchased by a foreign company - they are not the same company any longer, and we shouldn't conflate the amazing feats of engineering our great American watch companies achieved in the past with the cheap, copycat Swiss companies.

Stop crying