Messages: 25926 Location: Australia
Registered: November 2003
A Gentlemen's Ball...>
Wed, 03 October 2018 11:46
Webster (Webb) Clay Ball was a jeweller and watchmaker based in Cleveland, Ohio when in 1891 a head-on collision occurred between trains of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railways at Kipton, Ohio. A major contributing factor was that a conductor's watch had stopped for a short time. Accidents on the railroads were not uncommon and this prompted Ball to be commissioned as the railroads' Chief Time Inspector, and he went on to establish standards for railroad watches and a system for timepiece inspection. This was to promote more widespread coordination of railroad operations and ensure the timepieces used had a degree of standardisation in terms of quality and accuracy. The watches were regularly checked and adjusted as required, the intent being to reduce the incidence of accidents related to timekeeping variances. Ball established the Ball Watch Co. which utilised movements from major American (and later, Swiss) manufacturers. The American movements were modified to Ball's requirements, cased-up, and the watches sold under the Ball name. This is a very brief overview as the subject of this post is not a railroad watch but rather one of Ball's less encountered smaller "gentlemen's" watches.
(Image via http://main.linuxfocus.org).
Here's how this watch started for me. It's a 1927 Ball Commercial Standard Model 1, 12 size. You can see from the seller's pics below that the dial was in poor condition. It was described as not running, with a bad balance, (broken balance staffs are very commonly encountered on pocket watches). Aside from the dial and the non-running status the watch looked to be in otherwise decent condition, and it's an interesting model. These smaller Ball 12 size watches just don't show up often. Of course this meant that in all likelihood I'd be looking at a redial situation as replacement original dials or parts watches were going to be about as common to find as hen's teeth. Thus, I acquired the watch intending to have a redial done.
Below are photos of the dial taken by Rob B. when he had the watch for servicing. On the left is the dial as it was before it was sent it off to International Dial, and on the right the redial as received. This was a "standard" redial done with printing pads on hand, not a custom job, and so I was aware that the numerals would not be matching in style. I was happier in general with this result than I had been with a previous Hamilton redial from International Dial. This one appeared to be more neatly and consistently printed. The most obvious difference is the change in overall colour and surface finish of the dial. Anyway, I looked forward to see how the watch looked when assembled.
Here's the result. The original open-diamond hour and minute hands were retained and a new seconds hand was fitted to replace the damaged original. The watch measures 44.2mm in diameter and is 7.5mm thick.
The case is a particularly nice embossed and patterned 14K J. Boss white gold filled model made by the Keystone Watch Case Co. As you can see from the image of the inside of the caseback these were specifically marked as "Ball Model". The case was not quite in as good a condition as it appeared from the outside. At some time someone had done a fair bit of panel beating work to fix dents in the caseback. This work had been successful in making the back appear smooth from the outside but inside the signs of the work were quite evident. Nevertheless, a very nice looking case.
Apart from the broken balance staff the movement proved to have other issues when Rob B got it for servicing, the most serious being a cracked hairspring collet. A new staff and balance were required and this would require a hairspring matched to it, and so a replacement balance assembly was needed. This movement was made for Ball by the Illinois Watch Co, and Rob ascertained the correct model of Illinois 12 size movement it was based on and sourced a (very rusty!) Illinois parts movement as shown below. Yes, it was in bad shape, but the balance looked to be useable even though it had one end bent. Rob assured me this could be rectified, and so it proved to be. The new balance assembly was fitted to the Ball movement and timed to be running well.
Here is the Ball Commercial Standard Model 1, 19 jewel movement repaired, serviced, and ready to go.
The 1900 patent diagram below illustrates the distinctive style of plate design used on this and other size Ball movements.
- Paul Delury