When it comes to the watches that Ball makes, it’s quite a range, and there are certainly ones that I’ve come to like more than others. One of my favorites has been the Ball Engineer III Marvelight (I reviewed the II version here), given the classic size and shaping, the cyclops, and the wide tritium tubes. The tubes get the attention here, as they’ve jumping on the rainbow hues theme so popular for COVID-19 fund raising these days.
I know that date cyclops can be a divisive feature for folks, but myself, I am a big fan of it. And that was even before my eyes started having troubles with seeing smaller stuff (which, of course, some date wheels can be). Overall, I find it the icing on the cake of a well-propotioned (in either 40mm or 43mm guise) watch that features good, classic everyday design. And it’s a design that works well daily, as well as if you’re needing it for a dressier function.
Now, where things get a bit more fun with the Ball Engineer III Marvelight are the tritium tubes used on the dial. You can see that image up at the top, but here we’ve got the rainbow array of hues to signify that this is a special edition being made to support COVID-19 relief efforts (in this case, CHF 300 are donated from each pre-order sale to The Salvation Army). In case you might miss that flash of color in the daytime, they have outlined each tube in it’s corresponding color.
Now, while the Ball Engineer III Marvelight itself is available in two case sizes (and three dial colors, blue, black, or silver), it looks like this special “Caring” edition is just in 40mm and with a black dial. This special tritium tube layout will be limited to 1000 pieces, each of which go for $1,899 which is a pre-order price that goes until the end of July. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to pick up a Ball, might as well do it when you can help support COVID efforts, I say. ballwatch.ch
