View single post by stew77

Posted: Fri Feb 25th, 2011 11:15 pm

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stew77

Joined:	Thu Mar 26th, 2009
Location:	Colorado USA
Posts:	10254
Status:	Offline

Well...nothing new here, as the Ball Fireman Night Train has been around for some time. I seem to be a late adopter of many pieces, adding those that catch my attention with great build quality and unique features/design.

I am a big fan of Ball timepieces...IMO, they offer tremendous build quality for the dollar, and they contine to also be uniquely designed (IMO) which allows them to stand apart from the crowd. Any fan of Ball, would also have to be a fan of the "tubes", and I am no exception...I love them!!!

With one look at the pieces in my collection, one can see that I typically go for a Diver, but I continue to love a well designed Pilot or Military piece...I put the Night Train in the Military category if one is splitting hairs, but it has alot in common with cleanly designed pilot pieces too.

For those familar with the history of this piece, this is the most recent incarnation with only 2 color Tritium tubes (Red at 12 o'clock with Green everywhere else). Ball has produced a couple Tri-Lume options in this model which look spectacular as well...within a day of me purchasing this one, I saw a tri-color lume model come up for sale...oh well...that one sold quick and at a much higher price than I picked this one up for.

I am very happy with this one, as the Lume show is spectacular. 63 Tritium tubes in total do not let you down, and the glow is "always on"...these are Tritium tubes afterall.

Everything else is easy to understand. I will point out one interesting feature of the Night Train that is a differentiator...It is powered by the Ball Calibre 124 (this is an ETA 2824-2 modified with the "Universal Military Time" window and Ball's "date warning" window...the triangle under the Military time window changes from white to red between the hours of 9pm & 3am to warn the user not to adjust the date). Most WIS understand that this is standard protocol for a mechanical timepiece, but it is cool nonetheless! Worth noting is that the "Univeral Military Time" is not a UTC indicator (ie. Not a secondary time indicator like available on a GMT or UTC piece)...Ball caught some flack for labeling the indicator "Universal Time Coordinated" on the first edition of the watch and changed the indicator to read the current Universal Military Time. It is just that...a military time (ie. 24 hour time) indicator.

If you didn't notice from the pictures, the case is a nicely done DLC which maintains the nicely bushed grain of the ss underneath. Looks very good with this piece IMO.

Here are the specs from Ball:

Movement: Automatic BALL caliber 124
Functions: 24-hour military time indicator, quick-set date warning system, hours, minutes, seconds and date ; 12 double sized micro gas tubes on dial and 51 micro gas tubes on dial and hands
Shock Resistant: 5,000Gs
Water Resistant: 100m
Case: 43mm diameter stainless steel with DLC coating, 11.1 mm height, Fixed bezel, Anti-reflective sapphire crystal, Screwed-in crown
Bracelet: Calf leather strap with pin buckle
Dial: Black
Bracelet Options: Rubber strap with pin buckle

You can get the Night Train with either the Ball calf leather strap (Black w/ orange stitch) or the Ball Rubber Strap. Mine came with the Ball Calf Leather, but since the seller sort of understated the condition of the strap (lots of 'use'...I will leave it at that), I put one of my unused Anonimo Kodiak straps (Black with Grey Stitch which works well with this one IMO). I will, no doubt, explore some other strap options with this one.

Here are a few pics:

Date warning indicator 'off'...Ok to change the date!

Date warning indicator 'on'...NOT OK to change the date!

LUME is very nice!!!

Last edited on Fri Feb 25th, 2011 11:31 pm by stew77