Ball Watch’s Roadmaster Chronograph No. 999 is an Ode to Their Railroad Heritage

Ball’s connection to the railways is nothing new and in fact it was Webb C. Ball himself who set the railroad standard of accuracy that the legendary No. 999 land speed record-holding steam locomotive operated under. To celebrate that legacy, Ball has now released the new limited edition Roadmaster Chronograph No. 999 wristwatch. We will take a close look at the pared-back technicality of the Ball Roadmaster Chronograph No. 999 in just a moment but first, let’s use its launch as an excuse to explore the historic connection between Ball and the railroads.

As anyone that’s suffered a train delay (not due to a strike at any rate) can tell you, there are few things in life more frustrating than that one word popping up on a platform display, even if it’s just pointing out a train’s running just two minutes late. Needless to say, we take regular, painstakingly punctual trains as a given – but it wasn’t always so. In fact, in the early days of the railroad, it was anything but.

The railroads were instrumental in building the USA. They were the only thing that allowed the movement of people and supplies across the vast expanse of the nascent country to be actually possible. But timekeeping wasn’t always their strong suit.

Back in 1883, the American railroads had already come to a gentleman’s agreement to standardise time, dividing the nation into four time zones which each (in theory) synchronised their own timekeeping. The problem was that some watches just weren’t as good as others, and there was no real chronometric standard they needed to go by. That could have just been an annoyance, but in 1891 in Ohio it led to tragedy, when the No. 4 Fast Mail Train and another engine, the Accommodation, collided, killing both engineers and nine clerks. It happened for one reason: the engineer of the Accommodation’s watch stopped for four minutes.

It was a completely avoidable loss of life, as the railroad authorities realised afterwards, and prompted them to take action. They enlisted local watchmaker Webb C. Ball to ensure that every timekeeper in that branch of the railway was keeping accurate time, with no more than a 30 second deviation between watches.

It ensured that nothing like the 1891 disaster happened again. It also ensured that when the No. 999 steam locomotive set the world speed record in 1893 – a record that remained in place for a decade – reaching a then-staggering 112.5 mph, it ran to Ball’s railroad standard.

130 years on from their founding, the legendary steam train is a story that the watchmaker’s exploring once again with the Roadmaster No. 999. It’s not their only anniversary piece of course – the more classical Trainmaster Railroad Standard 130 Years piece is much more in keeping with those railway roots – but it remains Ball’s most modern nod to their heritage.

That nod comes in the form of a diving watch chronograph dressed in a 42mm titanium case. It’s as technical in appearance as we’ve come to expect from Ball, with their signature gas tubes in place of lumed indexes, a solid diving bezel and water resistance of 200m.

There’s also a subtle constant operation indicator at nine o’clock, simply to check that the watch is working at all times. Movement wise, it’s a solid Swiss number. Interestingly, it’s available in COSC-certified and non-COSC-certified versions, depending on if you want to pay a bit more for the surety of a certificate. Either way it offers a 62-hour power reserve and serious anti-magnetism, meaning the Roadmaster Chronograph No. 999 goes above and beyond what the early days of the railway would have required.

The final flourish is the writing on the rotor: 112.5 MPH RECORD BREAKER. It’s the only reference to the No. 999 on the watch other than its name, which makes for a pared-back limited edition that avoids the on-the-nose clichés we’re all too used to.

Limited to 1,000 pieces (I’d assume Ball will be keeping one, making it 999 up for sale), you can pre-order the Roadmaster Chronograph No. 999 for £2,331. That’s nearly £800 off the standard £3,100. That said, even if you do get it at retail, it’s a lot of watch for the money – and a reminder next time your train gets delayed that without timekeepers like Ball, it could be a lot, lot worse.