Hands-On Review: Ball Watch Roadmaster M Model A

The best bit of trivia I’ve heard about the Ball Watch Company, founded by its eponym, Webster Clay “Webb” Ball in 1891 — and one I have admittedly kept alive in conversations over the years — is that the expression “on the ball” actually has its origins in the world-renowned accuracy of the railroad watches the company produced in the early 20th Century. The legend, likely apocryphal, has it that “on the ball,” which today denotes a general sense of efficiency and promptness, once referred to a train being dependably on time thanks to the conductor’s use of one of Webb Ball’s meticulously adjusted pocket chronometers. Whether or not any of this is true, what cannot be disputed is Ball Watch’s impressive track record in making tool watches — initially for keeping the railways that knitted together the modern, interconnected United States running smoothly, and eventually pieces engineered specially for divers, pilots, firefighters, and even storm chasers. 

Ball’s latest release is the Roadmaster M Model A, a timepiece that ushers a mechanical alarm function (that’s the “A”) into the lineup for the first time. As a diehard fan of the somewhat niche complication (I sing its praises and explore its storied history here), I was excited when the Ball Watch team sent me the heads-up on the model several months ahead of its debut and even more eager to get my hands on it for a review. 

As with most Ball watches, the case of the Roadmaster M Model A is somewhat on the large side. Made of 904L stainless steel, it measures 41mm in diameter and 15.2m thick, with a consistently smooth, sleek surface treatment that is almost entirely brushed, a finish that speaks to the watch’s utilitarian character. At close glance under a loupe, the only hints of shiny polishing I could find were on the heads of the two crowns (both of which feature the brand's railroad-inspired, ornate “RR” emblem in raised relief) and even more subtly, on the mostly hidden facets of the bracelet’s center links. The type of steel used here, it is worth pointing out, is engineered for superior rust and corrosion resistance thanks to an alloy composition that's heavy on chromium, molybdenum, nickel, and copper as well as several grades of steel.

In profile the case has a prominent curve toward the wrist, culminating in a set of fairly short lugs, with drilled screws, that attach to the bracelet. With H-shaped links surrounding a row of rectangular ones, the bracelet tapers, subtly and elegantly, to a folding buckle. The fluted edge of the bidirectionally ratcheting GMT bezel adds to the overall thickness, along with the dome of the box-shaped sapphire crystal that rises above it. Make no mistake, this rather weighty watch makes its presence felt on the wrist, and that may or may not be your thing. Personally, I found it to be fully appropriate for a timepiece whose signature function is to get your attention. A watch that sounds an alarm is built to be anything but subtle, and this ethos seems to be applied throughout the design. 

The sapphire crystal has an antireflective coating and, rising just slightly above its surface at 3 o’clock, a magnifying lens over the date window to pop the date numeral underneath — again, a nod to maximum legibility over casual subtlety. Setting the Roadmaster M Model A apart from other models in Ball’s collection is the white text applied directly to the crystal’s surface rather than to the dial underneath — the classic “BALL” logo including the “Railroad Standard” notation below it, plus the “Alarm-Matic” indication and “100M/330FT” depth rating. The intent, I’m sure, is to give the main dial room to breathe, and it accomplishes that, though at first it’s hard getting used to, visually, almost like the text is an obstruction that detracts from the depth of the dial elements overall. In the right lighting, however, it floats above the ensemble to lend it the appropriate 3D feel.

If this watch were made by Rolex, we would be calling the bubble above the date display a “Cyclops” lens, and we would also be referring to the sharp, black-and-red bicolor arrangement of the 24-hour bezel as “Coke,” à la the nickname long ago applied to Rolex’s similar GMT-Master model, which clearly serves as at least partial inspiration here. The bezel insert is made of ceramic, with a ring of engraved white Arabic numerals and intervening square dots to denote the hour in 24-hour time. It rotates in both directions in clean, audible clicks for each one-hour interval; the numerals and dots line up seamlessly with the corresponding markings on the dial’s flange.

The familiar elements of a Ball watch are all present and accounted for on the matte black dial. The hours are marked by a combination of elongated baton indexes and large, blocky Arabic numerals strategically positioned at 12, 6, and 9 o’clock; the 3 o’clock marker is abandoned in favor of the aforementioned magnified date window. What makes these markers quintessentially “Ball” is the minuscule microtubes that are set into them, filled with tritium gas, a luminous agent rarely seen on most watches today and which Ball has proudly adopted as a brand hallmark (for a primer on tritium and why its presence here is noteworthy, check out this article.)  The hour and minute hands, both sort of sword-shaped with flattened tips, also have tritium tubes embedded in their centers. The seconds hand features two red stripes near its tip, helping to make its smooth journey around the dial (and thus the active running of the watch) more easy to discern in low light; on the other end of this hand is the typical ornate counterweight depicting the same “RR” that appears on the crowns. 

In addition to this standard handset, the Roadmaster M also features a somewhat unconventional GMT pointer that can be used to indicate a second time zone on the flange’s fixed 24-hour scale — and potentially a third one on the rotating bicolor bezel if the wearer chooses to set it to a different 24-hour coordinate than the one on the flange. Partly skeletonized and painted red to echo the “daytime” sector of the bezel and the stripes on the seconds hand, the GMT pointer appears to float in the center of the dial, as its shaft is attached out of sight behind the central disk for the alarm setting; it’s also coupled to the main hour hand so both indicators move in unison. Best of all from a utilitarian standpoint, its tip has another tritium-filled microtube, which means this additional time-zone reading will be as legible in the dark as the current time on the main dial, thanks to the GMT bezel’s own application of lume in the numerals. 

Here is where we should laud the Roadmaster’s colorful nighttime presence. Ball has long made watches that are at least as, if not more, striking in darkness than in daytime lighting, and this one is  no exception. The numerals, hands, and markers on the dial adopt the ambitious and megapopular “rainbow” arrangement that Ball introduced on its Marvelight Caring Edition of 2020, with alternating blues, oranges, violets, yellows and greens marking each hour position and their indicators. This polychromatic display is the result of a total 29 micro-gas tubes placed strategically on the dial and its details. The GMT bezel, whose 24 engraved numerals are treated not with the tritium tubes but with more traditional Super-LumiNova, features the familiar, pale green glow of that light-activated substance.

The movement inside the Roadmaster M, says Ball, was years in the making. Called Caliber RRM7379, it is the first mechanism from the brand to combine a GMT function with a mechanical alarm — a relative rarity, in fact, throughout the watch industry. It ups the ante on most other traditional alarm-equipped movements (of which there aren’t many in the first place), which use a tiny hammer striking a dome-shaped gong to create the alarm’s auditory output — in most examples, sort of a buzzing or chirping cricket-like sound, in varying degrees of loudness and duration depending on the watch and the construction of its case and movement.

Ball’s patented “AlarmMATIC” system, on the other hand, uses a ring-shaped metal gong (similar to those used in minute repeaters and other more complex and much more expensive chiming watches) protected by a polymer outer layer. This bimaterial design offers improved isolation of the gong’s chimes while also eliminating stray noises and vibrations that could muffle its high-pitched ringing. The result — as I can attest — is a much crisper and clearer emission of sound than one can normally expect from an alarm watch, more like a miniature clanging school bell than an amplified, chirping cricket. The polymer also serves the role of Ball's proprietary "Amortiser" anti-shock system, which isolates the movement from external impacts that could interfere with its operation.

Also worth noting: the “MATIC” in the name is not by accident: after an initial hand-winding of the alarm barrel — about 30 to 35 turns of the crown, it turns out — the alarm will wind itself automatically with the motions of the wearer’s arm along with the main movement. 

Here’s a more specific breakdown of how to set the Roadmaster M Model A and prepare it for use. The movement has two crowns, positioned at 2 o’clock and 4 o’clock. The former is devoted to the main timekeeping and GMT functionality. Pull the crown out to its middle position to adjust the red second-time-zone pointer, by turning it toward you (counterclockwise). The pointer will move along the flange in one-hour increments until the correct “home time” is chosen. In this same position, turn the crown in the opposite direction (clockwise) to set the date, with a series of crisp clicks. To set the hour and minute of your local time, pull the crown out to its third and final position to move the hands in a clockwise rotation. When you’re ready to wind the timepiece, push this crown all the way to its closed position.

The other crown at 4 o’clock is dedicated to the setting, winding, and silencing of the alarm. For the best result — i.e., the full 18-second ring at a pleasant, clear volume — wind the alarm’s mainspring first by turning the crown clockwise. Then extract the crown to its other position to set the alarm. Turn it counterclockwise to move the alarm indicator, which is actually a thin, triangle-shaped aperture in the center disk of the dial with a tritium tube underpinning it, in five-minute increments along the discrete minute ring bordered by the outer hour ring. Pull the crown out when the desired reminder time (or wake-up time) is set; when the alarm sounds, you can silence it before it uses up all the coiled-up mainspring energy by pushing the crown back in. 

As with most mechanical alarm watches (and the review model that was sent to me was, it should be noted, was technically a prototype), it took me a few days to figure out how to set the alarm with something approaching to-the-minute precision, but once you’ve got it down, this watch’s signature complication is one that I daresay many prospective owners in our appointment-filled modern world will find useful. Adding the dual-time indication, which just about every watch enthusiast would agree is one of more practical functions a timepiece can offer these days, is the proverbial icing on the cake.  The one detail that I found myself wishing were present on the Roadmaster (and which I would expect might emerge in future editions) is some kind of On/Off indicator for the alarm, as can be found on some other examples of the genre; design-wise, it would be a no-brainer to put it at 9 o’clock to harmoniously balance the date at 3. Of course, such an element would be sure to add complexity to the already-complex movement — and also add, undoubtedly, to the cost.

Which, of course, brings us to the actual MSRP of this 333-piece limited edition, which is $6,299 — on the higher end of Ball Watch’s portfolio, to be sure, but reasonable by the standards of a timepiece with a specially designed in-house movement incorporating both a GMT and an elite-level, chiming alarm function. One might even say, considering the combination of functions — an audible alert for scheduled events, like train arrivals and departures, and a GMT to track those arrivals and departures in far-flung destinations — that the Roadmaster M Model A is the ultimate modern railroad watch. Or at least one designed to keep its wearer on the ball.