Wristwatches · Wristwatch
Ball Trainmaster, 1970s
- Maker / attribution
- Ball (maker)
- Date
- 1970s
- Historical period
- Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Wristwatch
- Stock no.
- 40990005
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Analog/Shift (40990005)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Ball Trainmaster (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Analog/Shift (dealer), New York (stock number 40990005), this is a wristwatch by Ball, dated 1970s. The Atlas places it in the Quartz Revolution period (1969 – 1990) of its Wristwatches collection. The record is illustrated with 6 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Dealer description — Analog/Shift
Why We Love It Ball Watches has a long legacy of precision watchmaking in the United States. Relied on for decades a a leading manufacturer of pocketwatches for use in Railroad applications, Ball has taken a new direction in recent years. This particular piece, likely dating from the 1970s, pays tribute to the Ball legacy with "Trainmaster" nomenclature and a dial stylized to be reminiscent of early railroad watches with a crisp white backdrop featuring oversized printed Arabic indices. Blued steel hour and minute hands and a red center seconds hand with a red printed inner 24-hours scale wrap up the package beautifully. Cased in a nearly New Old Stock condition steel cushion case and housing a manually winding Swiss mechanical movement with domed acrylic crystal, this is an absolute stunner and a lovely piece of heritage Americana repackaged and tied up with a Swiss ribbon! (Please note watch is offered on a green suede Analog/Shift strap - not pictured)
Historical context
Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
Seiko's Astron begins mass quartz timekeeping; traditional industries contract sharply.
Quartz and digital watches transformed the market after 1969. Swiss employment collapsed, Japanese and Hong Kong production soared, and the Swatch (1983) helped the Swiss industry recover; mechanical watches survived as luxury goods.
Read the period in the timelineMore wristwatches from this periodEarlier: Modern Mechanical Horology
Atlas type guide
Wristwatches
Bracelet watches were worn by women from the early nineteenth century — Breguet made one for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, in 1810–12 — but the wristwatch only became a man's instrument with military use and aviation in the early twentieth century. Between the World Wars it overtook the pocket watch; the 1920s and 1930s brought rectangular Art Deco cases, water-resistant cases and the first automatic winding systems.
After 1945 the wristwatch became a carrier of identity — dress watches, sports and dive watches, chronographs, calendars — produced by Swiss, American, Japanese, German, Soviet and Chinese industries. The quartz revolution after 1969 and the mechanical renaissance since the 1990s, including the rise of independent watchmakers, complete the story.
What to look for
- The reference number (between the lugs or inside the case back) and serial number, the starting point for dating.
- The calibre: its maker and number are often stamped under the dial or on the bridge.
- Originality of dial, hands and crown — refinished ('redial') dials are common.
- Case material marks: 18K/750, 14K/585, stainless steel, gold-filled, plated.
Dating clues
- Wire-lug cases: before c. 1925.
- Water-resistant screw-down cases: from 1926.
- Quartz movements: from 1969; sapphire crystals widespread after c. 1980.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
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