You know me – if there’s something with profound levels of glow in it, I’m immediately interested. Tritium offers one way of constant – and colorful – brightness, and Ball has been elevating what they’ve been able to do with the material. One of the latest models – the recently-announced Ball Engineer III Hurricane Hunter – does something with it I’ve not seen from the brand before.
In this case, the Ball Engineer III Hurricane Hunter does have the wide tubes on the dial (primarily yellow with green at 12 o’clock), and slightly wider than normal green tubes on the handset as well. While not quite as wide as what is on the dial, it looks much more similar to them than the standard tubes would give – so definite thumbs up here. The bezel insert also has the tritium glow under it (as we saw on the this watch), but it also looks like it’s under the lighter part of the 24-hour scale around the edge of the dial, which is a neat trick.
With the movement they’ve built the Ball Engineer III Hurricane Hunter around, you’ve got what’s known as a “true” GMT watch. By that, it means that rather than quick-setting the GMT hand with the crown (turn one direction to move the hand, the other to adjust the date) the quick-set actually moves the main hour hand. This means you can leave the GMT hand pointed to a specific timezone (UTC, home, etc) and when you land in a new timezone, you can quickly adjust to the local time without touching the second timezone you’re tracking.
This is all wrapped up in a 40mm case with all of the standard protections we’re used to seeing from the brand – water resistance, anti-magenetism, and shock resistance. I’m also very, very much a fan of the cyclops that we see landing on the sapphire crystal of the Ball Engineer III Hurricane Hunter. It’s being offered in two dial colors (blue and black), with 1,000 pieces of each being built. While the MSRP is $3,249, you can save $500 and get it for just $2,749 (sapphire bezel) or $2,549 (ceramic bezel) until the pre-order closes out on June 8, 2021. ballwatch.com
Tech Specs from Ball
- LIMITED EDITION: 1000 (each color dial)
- WEIGHT: Approx. 180g
- MOVEMENT
- Automatic caliber BALL RR1205-C
- Chronometer certified COSC
- SIZE (CASE): Ø 40mm, height 13.8 mm
- WATER RESISTANCE: 100m/330ft
- ANTI-MAGNETISM: 1,000 Gauss (80,000A/m)
- MICRO GAS TUBES: 30 micro gas tubes on bezel, hour, minute, second and GMT hands and dial for night reading capability
- FUNCTIONS
- Quick set local 12-hour hand
- Second time zone indication illuminated with Super LumiNova
- Hours, minutes, sweep second and magnified date
- 5,000Gs shock resistance
- CASE MATERIAL
- Stainless steel
- Bi-directional rotating sapphire bezel with micro gas tubes for night reading capability
- Mu-metal shield
- Amortiser® patented anti-shock system
- CROWN: Screwed-in crown
- CRYSTAL: Dome shaped anti-reflective sapphire crystal
- DIAL COLOR: Blue or Black
- BRACELET: Stainless steel bracelet with folding buckle
- LUG WIDTH: 20mm
