Ball Roadmaster Marine GMT Meteorite Review

Over the last few weeks we've reviewed three very different watches from Ball's diverse collection. Today we are going to take a look at the fourth and final watch that Ball sent us. For the final watch we're going to be taking an in-depth look at the Roadmaster Marine GMT with a meteorite dial.

Before we get into the details of the Roadmaster Marine GMT, we'll quickly go over the history of Ball Watches. If you would like a much more detailed history of the brand, you can check out the first watch we reviewed from Ball where we went into a much more in-depth look at the brand and its history: Ball Engineer III Marvelight Chronometer Day-Date Review



Ball was founded as the result of a devastating train wreck in Kipton, Ohio that was caused when one of the engineer's watches stopped running for four minutes and the timing error caused two trains to collide with fatal consequences. Following this collision the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company appointed Cleveland based jewelry Webb C. Ball as their Chief Time Inspector. Ball's main purpose was to create a strict set of standards for timepieces used on the railroad that would avoid such disasters from happening again.

The resulting standard was called the "Official Railroad Standard" often referred to as the "RR Standard". The four pillars to this standard were accuracy, durability, legibility and regular inspection. When a timepiece met all four of these guidelines it was approved to be used on the railroad. Initially Ball didn't produce any watches, but rather tapped American watchmakers such as Waltham, Elgin and Hamilton to produce these watches which had "Ball Standard" or "Official RR Standard" printed on the dial indicating the high quality level of the watches.



The Ball name became known for meaning quality and the phase "Get on the Ball" was even believed to have originated from referencing this quality. In time the "Ball Watch Company" was formed that produced their own watches with movements often sourced from top Swiss movement producers. Although as the railway system started to become more obsolete and cheap quartz watches nearly killed the mechanical watch industry, Ball suddenly found themselves just a shadow of their former selves.

In the 1990s the brand was purchased and completely moved to Switzerland. This meant from now on all Ball watches were produced and assembled in Switzerland, leading to Ball suddenly seeing a resurgence. Ball started to develop all new collections that were on the bleeding edge of technology while still paying tribute to their legacy on the railroads and the "Official RR Standard". Ball even started producing their own in-house movements which is pretty much the crowning achievement for a watch manufacture.





Initial Thoughts

Ok so now that we've covered the history of Ball now let's take a closer look at the Roadmaster Marine GMT. When the watch arrived the first thing I noticed was the stunning meteorite dial. Ball uses a piece of the Gibeon meteorite to create the dial for the Roadmaster Marine GMT. The Gibeon meteorite is said to have been formed from the explosion of a large asteroid. It arrived on Earth around 600 million years ago. The crystal patterns on this meteorite is known as Widmanstatten patterns caused by the iron and nickel inside of the meteorite slowly cooling. Ball designers carefully designed the dial layout around the pattern of the meteorite to best showcase its patterns. The dial transitions from whites to silvers to dark grays and really isn't a dial that could be replicated by manmade techniques. Also each slice of meteorite will be slightly different meaning each Roadmaster Marine GMT will be slightly unique.

The next thing I noticed during my initial time with the Roadmaster Marine GMT was the amazing black and red ceramic GMT bezel. This bezel color scheme is typically referred to as the "Coke" bezel given to Rolex GMT-Masters with the same red and black GMT bezel coloration. There is absolutely no bleed between black and red where the colors meet and the colors are bold and vibrant. The bezel is bi-directional and allows you to advance the bezel in 30 minute increments.



Finally as with all Ball watches the micro-gas tubes used for lume always gets my attention. Before Super-Luminova became the industry standard for lume, radioactive lume solutions like radium and tritium were used to allow watches to be read in low light. Besides being radioactive, these lume solutions did offer an advantage over modern lume like Super-Luminova. This advantage was that they never needed to be recharged and would glow for many years even in complete darkness unlike Super-Luminova that needs to be charged by light and then has a rather short glowing time. Ball was able to avoid any issues with radiation since the tritium gas is encapsulated in a sealed tube. The Roadmaster Marine GMT uses a mixture of green and yellow micro-gas tubes on the dial making up the hour markers and being placed on the hands. Under UV light these markers glow with an otherworldly brightness.



Technical Specifications

The Ball Roadmaster Marine GMT is crafted out of titanium and has a case diameter of 41 mm with a slight overhang on the bezel which measures 41.5 mm. The watch has a lug to lug length of 47.7 mm and at its thickest point is 14.8 mm. When sized for my 7.25 inch wrist the Roadmaster Marine GMT weighs 151 grams when on the full titanium bracelet.



The Roadmaster Marine GMT has the slightest dome to its sapphire crystal which is also treated with an anti-reflective coating. Underneath the crystal clear sapphire lies the Gibeon meteorite dial. The cut meteorite dial shows an interesting cross section of the meteor with crystallized highlights ranging from white to silver and grays. The dial is rather subtle and from any distance the watch looks to have an off-white to grey dial. I've always been a fan of white dialed watches so I really like the light hue of the dial.

For the hour markers Ball uses a mixture of Arabic and stick markers. 12, 6 and 9 are Arabic numerals formed out of micro-gas tubes which glow green, 3 has been replaced by white day and date windows with a small green stick marker also made from a micro-gas tube. The rest of the hour markers are made up of stick markers formed out of yellow micro-gas tubes.



The hour, minute and seconds hands have green micro-gas tubes affixed to them while the GMT hand has a green micro-gas tube. The hands are all polished except the seconds hand which is red and has the double R logo as its counterbalance. The GMT hand is partially skeletonized and is outlined in red, this partial skeletonization also helps the GMT hand not interfere too much with time telling when not being used.

Ball branding is printed in black at 12 o'clock with "GMT Chronometer 300M / 1000FT" and "T25 Swiss Made" printed at 6. T25 refers to the use of tritium on the dial, which is normally seen as "T Swiss Made T". Finishing off the dial is a 24 hour scale printed along the outside of the dial along with a minute ring done in both black stick markers and red lines.



The ceramic bezel insert is broken down into two sections with the day section (6 to 18) being done in red and the night section (18 to 6) done in black. Where the colors meet at 6 and 18 there is a clear break in each color with no bleeding into each other. For not being a dive watch, the bezel is nicely notched and operates with a nice click and moves into position nicely. The bezel is bi-directional and allows adjustments in 30 minute increments. Each even hour is marked by an Arabic numeral and each odd hour is done with a dot. When in low light conditions these Super-Luminova coated markers glow green, under UV they are blue.

The entirety of the case is brushed in finish with the only polished areas being on the bezel and crowns. Looking at the profile of the case, you can see a nice curve of the case and lugs to nicely fit your wrist. The left hand side of the case features pushers at 8 and 10 o'clock that move the GMT hand forward and backwards by one hour. The right hand side of the case has a screw down crown that controls all other settings.



The crown is polished and also nicely scalloped like the bezel. On top of the crown is an engraving of the Ball double R logo. When the crown is unscrewed you can manually wind the automatic movement in the resting position. Pulling the crown out to position one allows you to set the day and date. Turning the crown towards you let your set the day of the week and you can also pick between English and Spanish. Turning the crown away from you advances the date. Pulling the crown out to position two stops the seconds hand and allows you to set the time. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump the minute hand and aligning the crown to screw back in requires no extra care.

The Roadmaster Marine GMT has a lug width of 20 mm which means it can except an endless number of aftermarket straps since 20 mm is the most common lug width. The watch comes on a brushed titanium and stainless steel bracelet with an h-link construction. Each large H link is connected to each other with a smaller rectangular mid link. The links are fixed together using screws, which is something I really prefer when dealing with sizing bracelets. The bracelet actually is wider than the lug width giving it an integrated look and tapers down from 26 mm at the lugs down to 18 mm at the hidden butterfly clasp. The clasp mostly looks like a regular link but is messing the center link and has Ball branding on one end. Two buttons need to be pushed to allow the deployant clasp to release and the ends of the clasp click into the deployant nice and secure.



Flipping the watch over shows off the screw down display caseback which when combined with the screw down crown aids in the 300 meters of water resistance. The watch's individual number out of the 1,000 piece limited edition is also engraved on the caseback. Underneath the rear sapphire crystal you get to see the Ball RR1203-C Swiss made automatic movement topped off with a branded Ball winding rotor. The movement is Chronometer certified and beats at 28,800 vph (4Hz) with 38 hours of power reserve. While 38 hours isn't a long power reserve, it's more than adequate for a watch that will more than likely be a daily wearer. Being a tool watch the movement isn't too over the top in terms of finishing but does display nice usage of Cotes de Geneve. The movement is also protected to shocks up to 5,000 Gs and anti-magnetic to 4,800A/M. On our timegrapher the RR1203-C showed an accuracy of +3 seconds per day when averaged out over several positions, which is well within Chronometer standards.



On The Wrist

While the Ball Roadmaster Marine GMT is a bit smaller in lug to lug length at 47.7 mm then my preferred 50 mm length, the watch did fit my 7.25 inch wrist very well. I feel a lot of this had to do with being on a titanium bracelet as opposed to a rubber or NATO strap which would have made the watch feel a bit small. The bracelet gave the illusion that the watch was large and covered my wrist well without ever favoring one side over the other. Even though the case is fully constructed out of titanium, being on a titanium and stainless steel bracelet did add a bit of heft to it, meaning the watch never fully disappeared on wrist. It would have been interesting to try the Roadmaster Marine GMT on a rubber strap and see how light it felt.



As for functions, I'm not really the biggest fan of the GMT complication. I know that in contemporary watch collecting the GMT complication is up there with the chronograph in terms of popularity, but as with the chronograph it's just not a feature I really ever use. I do love the look of the black and red bezel and maybe if I traveled more it would make sense. That being said the quick adjust of the GMT hand via the two pushers is a game changer for those that love GMTs.

To test legibility I only really use one simple test, which is to see how easy it is to tell the time while driving with just a quick glance. Typically dive watches with their high contrast dials and large hour markers and hands do the best at this test. I was a bit surprised how easy it was to tell the dial at a glance with the Roadmaster Marine GMT since I was unsure how the meteorite would perform with reflections and direct sunlight. I was pleasantly surprised that the silvery dial and large yellowish hour markers when combined with the polished hands made telling the time at a glance a breeze, easily passing my little legibility test. Also the micro-gas tubes made sure that the dial was always visible even in pitch black with the watch not having seen light in hours.



The overall aesthetic of the Roadmaster Marine GMT is pretty balanced and muted with the black and red bezel being the most pronounced design cue. This meant that the watch went just perfectly with everything I wore with it, which was typically a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. I wore the watch around for my boring day to day errands and out to dinner and drinks where it was a great everyday companion. I really feel this watch would be an ideal daily wearer and can fit in well in both casual and more formal situations.

Like I've mentioned before we live in an area where you see a ton of Rolex stainless steel sports models. With the Ball Roadmaster Marine GMT being a stainless steel sports watch with a black and red bezel, naturally the watch got a lot of looks. Even the most casual admirer of watches knows what a Rolex GMT-Master II is, so this watch will catch those eyes. I did have a few people come up and ask me about the watch and most were actually very interested in the history of Ball and just fell in love with the meteorite dial. I also showed the watch to a few friends while out and once again the dial stole the show. My friends were also surprised with the lower than expected price of the watch.





Value and Position in the Market

Speaking of price, the Ball Roadmaster Marine GMT Meteorite has a retail price of $3,849. For that price you're getting an extremely tough and well built watch fully crafted out of titanium. The meteorite dial is just mesmerizing to look at and adds something much different from the regular batch of sports watches. Having both the day and date displayed along with the GMT complication is another added bonus. Ball did an amazing job with the black and red ceramic on the bezel and having the ability to quickly change the GMT hand by pressing a pusher is beyond convenient, meaning the watch never needs to be taken off the wrist to be adjusted while traveling. Now is a good time to look at other watches with similar features to the Roadmaster Marine GMT and see how the watch fares in terms of value and specs.

Up first we have the most well known GMT watch in the Rolex GMT-Master II which has a 40 mm case diameter and is crafted out of stainless steel. Rolex doesn't currently make a black and red bezel, but they do offer many other bezel color combinations. The GMT-Master II only offers a third of the Roadmaster Marine GMTs water resistance at 100 meters. The watch does run on an in-house Rolex caliber which offers 70 hours of power reserve. The GMT-Master II is also not crafted out of titanium and doesn't have the meteorite dial but still costs much more than the Roadmaster Marine GMT at $11,000, which is also before aftermarket prices which are much higher since the GMT-Master II is nearly impossible to quickly purchase at retail.



Moving on is the Stratos UTC from Formex that we reviewed a few months ago. The Stratos UTC has a 41 mm case made out of stainless steel. Like the Ball the Formex also offers a quick adjustment of the GMT hand through case pushers. The Stratos UTC has a more unique look to it than the traditional looking Roadmaster Marine GMT as well. The watch once again only offers a third of the water resistance as the Ball at 100 meters. The Stratos UTC is powered by an off the shelf ETA movement with a custom GMT module and offers 42 hours of power reserve. The watch retails for nearly the same price as the Roadmaster Marine GMT at $3,990.

Next up is the Supermarine 300M GMT from Bremont which is done in stainless steel and has a case diameter of 40 mm. The watch has the same 300 meters of water resistance as the Roadmaster Marine GMT. Bremont picked to use an aluminum bezel insert instead of ceramic which gives the Supermarine a more vintage feel to it. The Bremont uses a modified off the shelf ETA movement like the Formex which offers 50 hours of power reserve. The Supermarine 300M GMT is a bit more expensive than the Roadmaster Marine GMT as well at $4,400.



Finally we have the Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M GMT from Omega. This watch is crafted out of stainless steel and has a case diameter of 43.5 mm. The Planet Ocean does double the water resistance of the Roadmaster Marine GMT as well boasting a full 600 meters. The watch is also powered by an in-house Omega movement with 60 hours of power reserve. The Omega like the Rolex retails for much more than the Ball at $8,700.

As you can see from the four watches we compared to the Ball Roadmaster Marine GMT that the watch offers great value for the money asked. The Roadmaster Marine GMT has similar if not better specs than the other watches and was also the least expensive. While being the least expensive it still offers features not seen on any of the other watches like a titanium case as well as the stunning meteorite dial.





Closing Thoughts

In the end is the Ball Roadmaster Marine GMT for me? Remember when it comes to my personal watches I am more than picky. Some things I really love about the watch is first and foremost the titanium case, if this watch was done in stainless steel I'd really have a hard time getting behind it personally. The meteorite dial is also something that is new to me and is done really well on this watch. The micro-gas tubes and constant lume is another feature of Ball watches that is super compelling.

Keeping the watch from being a hit to me personally is the focus on the GMT function. This is just not a complication I ever use and having a bezel dedicated to it along with a hand and two pushers is just too much for a feature I'll leave alone. I'm also not a fan of bracelets on my personal watches so that's an issue as well, although the 20 mm lug width means it would be super easy to find a different strap option.

So then would I recommend the Roadmaster Marine GMT to others looking for a GMT sports watch? I would 100% recommend this watch to somebody looking for a GMT sports watch. I know my indifference towards the GMT complication is weird and not the normal way a watch collector thinks. When you look at the Roadmaster Marine GMT versus particularly the Rolex GMT-Master II it's hard to see why you would spend the extra money unless brand name and having an in-house movement (you still get a Chronometer certified movement with the Ball) are paramount to you. You get more water resistance in the Ball and also have a case crafted out of high tech titanium along with a meteorite dial. You also get two pushers dedicated to quickly setting the GMT hand meaning the watch never needs to leave the security of your wrist. Funny enough you also get the "Coke" bezel color scheme which is something Rolex no longer offers after making it famous, even after years of fans pleading for it to make a comeback.



I'd really like to take this time to thank Ball for sending us these four watches which have served as a great introduction to the brand. Ball has always been a brand I've known very well but never spent any real wrist time with. I've come away from my time with these watches really respecting what Ball does as a brand and they have really shown me that they produce some excellent quality timepieces. I really can't wait to see what they come out with next and hopefully get some more pieces in for review in the near future.

For more information about the Roadmaster Marine GMT Meteorite please visit : Ball Watches

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: DG3000A-S12CJ-MSL

Retail Price: $3.849

Case Size: 41 mm (41.5 mm with Bezel Overhang)

Lug to Lug: 47.7 mm

Thickness: 14.8 mm

Weight: 151 Grams

Case Material: Titanium

Bezel: Ceramic

Strap: Titanium and Stainless Steel Bracelet with Deployant Clasp

Movement: Ball RR1203-C Swiss Made Automatic

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Day, Date, Quick Set GMT

Power Reserve: 38 Hours

Water Resistance: 300 Meters