re: Swatch Group finna dilute another of its brands

Ball makes solid watches that are a good value relatively.

I like the Ocean Explorer but if it is going to be daily wear it might be a little busy.

If you wear watches in bed tritium tubes can actually be a bit distracting for some. The one thing I hate about Ball is when they use the tubes to make numbers on the dial, they look clunky to me like a kid's macaroni art. The other thing to note is the half-life of tritium is just over 12 years so when they dim to the point you are no longer happy the dial has to be replaced. Most people seem to be happy with them for about 20 years so it isn't a big issue for most. I do really like how they have illuminated the moon phase.


Ball calls their movements in-house but most (all?) of them are based on ETA movements. Looking at the movement and the 6 o'clock moon phase I would guess this one is based on the ubiquitous 2824 likely with a Dubois Depraz 9310 module. The DD modules are usually just replaced during service vs actually rebuilt because they are beyond the dexterity of most watchmakers. It should be a solid movement and in the case COSC certified.


IWWI


ETA since we are going afield I am surprised it hasn't popped up here that Rolex bought Bucherer. Gotta hand it to Rolex now they will be making money selling their competitor's watches. That's some masters of the universe shite. I wonder how they will handle their own wait list now. They say they aren't going to dump their AD network but we will see. Will Bucherer be the one to get the bulk of their hot watches? in related news look what the announcement did to Watches of Switzerland stock: