From the outset in 1891 Webster Clay Ball, founder of the Ball Watch Company, established very exacting legibility standards for his watches. Easy legibility has been a defining motto for Ball’s watches ever since. And now the technology enabling 24 hour legibility is much more sophisticated than it was in the early Ball watches.
Today, each of Ball’s watches have hands and dials fitted with gas tubes that allow them to be read under all circumstances, even in adverse conditions.
The secret lies in pioneering Swiss technology where tritium gas is encapsulated in glass microtubes. Light is then emitted from these tubes when the tritium molecules strike the coloured inner surface of the tube. This phenomenon lasts up to 20 years without requiring ‘recharging’ from an external light source.
The light emitted from these tubes is a hundred times brighter than light sources more commonly used in watch-making. An infinite palette of emitted colours are possible because there exists a wide variation in colours available for the inner coating. And, the microtubes can be used to create numbers or shapes.
The secure photogenic tube system enables the performance benefits of tritium to be exploited without any concern about radioactivity.
With this innovative technology Ball’s designers can produce watches that are aesthetically pleasing both by day and by night.
So as darkness shortens the day with a Ball watch you can easily read the time precisely whether you are in broad daylight or at night, on the go, or on the sofa.
