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.

U r an idiot

Prefatc video

I myself dived with it in both salt and fresh water without any problems! After the saltwater dive, there are rules that must be followed. It must be rinsed with fresh water so that no salt crystal precipitates remain after drying, which can cause damage to the structure through the seals of the crowns during adjustment. The other is that you should not set the date or time before drying, so that it does not get wet through the seal. If you follow these rules and have the seals checked by a master watchmaker every five years, you will never have problems with soaking. Anyway, the Orient Mako XL introduced me to the world of diving watches!

Any decent non mall/boutique watch requires ongoing servicing. Think about them like cars and they sure the car you have the more you’re gonna want to take it and have it serviced. The more complications the more things the more accuracy that it has the more you’re gonna have it to the shop. My problem with Ball is upon investigation these “service shops” seem to be a few and formed between. I also understand from my reading and watching that the price that it cost to get Ball serviced is: 1- very relative 2- can be very high in price. So staying with a metaphor this watch would be the relatively inexpensive foreign car that is very expensive to repair with a minimal level of repair shops accessible. I was looking at it previously owned one but first reached out to try to see if there is a service area near me that could give me a ballpark (Harden, the pun) on what it would be cost for calibrating the movement (they claim COSC . Note here is a perfect example of the need to get any watch serviced especially a COSC watch MOVEMENTS NEED TO BE PERIODICALLY CALIBRATED just like engines and transmissions do the more expensive the engine more expensive the transmission the more you’re gonna need to make sure it’s running properly) After a lot of investigation, including contacting Ball site I finally found a service center that service this watch. of course upon my email to them the response was we don’t do in-house servicing. We send it out so you would have to send us the watch. “We would have to send it to our service center and then they would give you a quote on how much it would cost to fix it” So again, very reminiscent of the cheaper foreign car who might have very expensive part changes, but I’m like a more expensive foreign car you pretty much nowhere. The shop is in the shops all over the place and generally know how much Mercedes transmission costs very nebulous to this watch. Also adding to the fact that they’re operating under a brand-name that died about 20 or 30 years ago was purchased by a conglomerate in Switzerland, which is now owned by a Chinese conglomerate. Is it a ball watch anymore ?

Do more reviews my G. subed!

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...

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

I love this watch but it is expensive in South Africa almost a thousand rand.I have a GShock and a Casio edifice

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

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.

Mate you’ve got it wrong.

No light. Casio got lazy.

Do some research

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.

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.

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 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.

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

A truly great little watch. I’ve seen this reviewed loads of times. It’s your delivery and voice that really stands out, though, well done. You should do many more reviews.

No lume lasts forever.

I love CASIO watches my favorite watches I love this watch I want to get this model in the black and white dial very nice watch I have the other model like this one with the 52mm I love CASIO watches

So many high end watches feature reliable 100m water resitance with no screw down Crown or screw down pushers on chronographs. No different for this watch. I have seen many people go diving with it as well

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

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

Got this today from Argos for £19.99 after watching your video. An obsessed with watches and just wanted an everyday casual one I don’t have to worry about it. It’s great. Thanks for the video

I have a watch with a white face

Agree 100% 👍

Good video, thanks. I bought my one in April this year. It is a nice small watch, compared to my G-Shock Rangeman 9400-1. The strap feels too small, so I bought a 22mm rubber strap and modified the end to 18mm. It is much nicer and not so small looking with the thinner strap, which makes it look and feel.more substantial, but still very light. It is my daily watch now. I use the G-Shock when I need a more rugged watch and at night because of th backlight. I like my Casio MRW-200H-1, good watch, also tough and worn it swimming and hiking, it doesn't miss a beat.

Your review in outdoor is great!!

Nice review.

Asown watch for that money, i have 2 models, greetings from Quilpué, Chile.

i normally wear a Timex Ironman which is a nice all around watch but decided to pull this watch out and change it up. What's not to like! Simple,easy to read and affordable. I like the looks as well!

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.

BIG ISSUE....

Good watch mrw 200h👌👌👌

Dude everything needs maintenance LOL even the spaceship need that

Ball owned by Communist China now !

Great video and not to beat a dead horse but you definitely need not worry about just swimming with one of these. There is a channel on KZbin that shows even more cheaply made watches with reasonable depth ratings hold up way deeper than most divers even go.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

Dude, how do you not have more subs? These videos are awesome! 👏🏻

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

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

6:47

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.

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