The Ball Engineer II Marvelight

I’ve reviewed a few Ball timepieces on this site in the year and a half that I have been writing for WatchMarvel, and I’ve been quite impressed with the company on a whole. However, I must say that compared to their other designs the Marvelight is quite tame. This necessarily isn’t a bad thing as it gives a broader scope to the brands already wide selection of timepieces.

Since its release, there have been many watch pundits saying that the design is too close to the Datejust or even the Milgauss but it is difficult to create a dressy watch – especially one with a Cyclops, without some knee-jerk reference to it being similar to the two aforementioned Rolex watches. Personally, I like this new creation and I think it will do very well on the retail side.

The case of the watch is crafted from stainless steel and with its 40mm diameter and 13mm case height, it sets itself up as also one of the smallest gent’s Ball watches out there. The case and bracelet are both brushed and highly polished, and I thought that the H styled bracelet with its domed central links went very well with the overall aesthetic. Securing the watch is a hidden butterfly clasp. The crown is ridged for the truly effortless winding of the watch, and the setting of the time and date.

The dial options are blue, black, and silver with a brushed sunray design. The hands are dauphine shaped and carry tritium tubes, which illuminate a green glow. The index at 12 also glows green, while every other position glows blue. The tritium in the hands and the hour markers make for a legibility in low light conditions that is, quite frankly, unrivalled. At the 3 position is a date aperture magnified by a cyclops. The Ball Engineer II Marvelight is powered by a Swiss made self-winding mechanical caliber, and is water resistant to 100 meters.