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| Ball Watch |
![]() Executive: Mr. Jeffrey Hess Founded: 1891 Website: www.ballwatchusa.com When Webb C. Ball was summoned to testify about the timekeeping discrepancies that led to the great Kipton, Ohio train wreck, in 1891, he could not have fathomed in his wildest dreams that he would go down in history as the driving force behind standardizing the watch industry worldwide, nor that his dream would live 115 years later. Mr. Ball was, without a doubt, an innovator, a salesman and a self-promoter. He served the public well in Cleveland, Ohio - selling gold, silverware, jewelry, clocks and diamonds from his little store near the railroad tracks. But mostly he sold watches. His watches kept excellent time and Mr. Ball was known, throughout Ohio, as a man who could fix just about any watch - and that these watches always seemed to be able to be counted on. He was, by most accounts, a genius. So when poor timekeeping and un-standardized time was blamed for the great Kipton train wreck, which occurred in April of 1891 - killing 8 people, Mr. Ball was called into action. Soon, standardization was in place throughout the USA and "Railroad Time" became the standard. Watch companies such as Howard, Waltham, Elgin, Hamilton, Hampden and Vacheron & Constantin worked with Mr. Ball and his new company, "Ball Watch Company," providing him with movements that he then standardized and upgraded to Railroad standards and that bore the name of Ball Watch Company on the outside. (Most were upgraded to sapphire pallets and tuned to the finest of timekeeping capabilities.) Waltham, Hamilton, Elgin etc., all made their own fine pocket watches for railroad service, but a Ball Watch was (for almost 100 years) considered to be "the best...the Cadillac" of American Railroad watches. Today, Ball Watch still produces some of the finest timepieces available. Ball watches are equipped with some of today's most innovative new features like the Ball-engineered micro gas light technology and patented gas light function that makes their watches light up - and helps world travelers and watch connoisseurs read their watch in the complete darkness. This, Ball Watch Company reports, is 100 times easier to read than Tritium paint and will glow continuously for 25 years! |
Email address: info@ballwatchusa.com Address: 1131 4th Street North St. Petersburg, FL 33701 Telephone: 727-896-4278 Fax: 727-825-0803 Catalogs available: Yes Is there a charge for catalog: No How do I get a catalog: Call for a catalog |
Send repairs to the above address |
| 257 Adams Lane, Hewlett NY 11557 Phone: 516-295-2516 - Fax: 516-374-5060 - info@americanwatchguild.com | |||||
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