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JTam
29
Nov 15, 2020
checkVerified Buyer
Good value for money for the watch, however...
I pre-ordered the watch and received it on 4th November 2020, having bought the steel bracelet version with the leather bands as an option. The box itself is nothing special, and the watch was packaged with plastic protection along the steel bracelet, crystal, and casing. The leather bands were separate from the box. Inside the box included a warranty card, which I used to register the watch with Ball to get the extra 1 year warranty. From the Drop.com pictures, the watch looks quite plain. But taking a closer look at the dial you'll start to notice the radial pattern which I think looks great. When it's bright out, the indices on the dial and the hands themselves appear white, it make it very easy to read the time given the contrast with the dial. Around dusk, you'll start to notice the indices changing colours a bit (see picture below). The colour change is subtle. During the evenings, the tritium glows faintly but enough to allow you to easily read the time at night. The tritium is not supposed to glow intensely as some people believe, and that is a good thing because the watch isn't going to be a big glowing thing on your wrist at night attracting everyone's attention. The DLC coating on the watch is quite nice. The casing is darker than the official Drop photos show, and the butterfly clasp design of the DLC bracelet also means the bracelet looks continuous around your wrist. I haven't thrown my watch around or deliberately try scratching the coating so I can only comment on the appearance and not the durability aspect. My wrist is around 6.5 inches in circumference so I removed 3 links from the bracelet to fit my wrist perfectly, though I would've preferred some extra adjustments on the bracelet to loosen it up a tiny bit. The leather band was an impulse buy in case I didn't like the steel bracelet, but I don't think I will be using the leather band. As you can see from the photo below, the leather band isn't completely black on the outside, which is disappointing as I don't think the brown highlights on the band matches the casing of the watch at all. My recommendation for potential buyers is to get the steel bracelet option only. The movement is supposed to be an ETA 2824-2 derivative, and the sound of the rotation of the rotor is very faint. As for timekeeping it's been keeping time quite well throughout the week (using time.is as the reference). Besides the leather band, there are other things I think are worth noting. The "RR" insignia on the crown is not timed perpendicular/parallel with the casing. Neither is the Night Train case back (see pictures below). Regarding the case back, there's no mention of Drop.com on it for those who are curious. The DLC coating on the steel band doesn't coat the entirety of the surfaces of the links (see picture below). I assume that when the DLC coating was applied on Ball's usual steel bracelets, the coating changed the tolerances of the links enough such that the links were binding against each other when assembled, hence they had to remove the DLC coating where the links interface to remove the binding issue. You won't see the lack of DLC coating on the steel bracelet when assembled so it's not a glaring issue, and the links don't have slop at all; so functionality-wise I don't think it's an issue. Overall, with the tritium inserts, the look of the watch and the DLC coating, I think this watch represents a good value for money for anyone looking to purchase a watch with a swiss movement. I can recommend this watch to my friends and family without hesitation.
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Edit (5th December 2020): I have made a revision on the rating I gave to the Ball Watch (was 4 stars prior to the edit). The rating is not related to the quality of the product, but the pricing decision made by Drop.com subsequent to my purchase. For Black Friday / Thanksgiving 2020, Drop.com decided to lower the price on the watch to attract more sales. That in and of itself is not an issue, but it is extremely disappointing to see Drop.com lowering the price well below the pre-order price for both the watch AND the leather band. Sure, there's no implication that the prices offered during the pre-order stage was the MAP available for the watch. Nor would I expect the advertised pricing of the watch to remain the same forever. But in combination with the fact that: (1) there was a lack of clear communication from Drop.com after the closing of the pre-orders regartding the status of the drop; (2) the fact that it took an extra month for Drop.com to ship the watch from their supposed shipping date (which is well documented in the discussions page as of my edit); and (3) the fact they are lowering the price below the pre-order price LESS THAN A MONTH since I (and many others) pre-ordered the watch, is a terrible way for Drop to retain its customers. So, I decided to change my review and lower my rating of the product to 1 star, in solidarity with the lowering of the price by Drop.com. I still stand by what I initially wrote, and frankly speaking for anyone looking to purchase this watch, it is an even better deal than I extolled in my review. However, I think this drop alone serves as a good indicator of how Drop.com views its products and customers, so caveat emptor for anyone mulling over anything new Drop.com is listing for "pre-orders". Edit (11th December 2020): Further to the issues above, I was made aware of a post in the discussion thread by Kevin from Outreach: https://drop.com/buy/drop-ball-watch-co-night-train-dlc-automatic-watch/talk/2744603 I submitted my request to Drop.com, and they were expedient with applying their price protection policy. In light of this situation, I decided to reflect this by reverting to my initial rating for the review. I am still disappointed with what transpired, as I failed to find any information about the price protection policy on the website, the receipt, or the order confirmation email for the product. Regardless, my gripe about the situation has been resolved for me, and I encourage owners who had pre-ordered the watch to request the price protection policy from Drop if applicable.
(Edited)
Recommends this product? Yes
FaastEddie
23
Dec 2, 2020
JTamThanks for putting up the thorough review. I agree with you on all aspects. Most notably, I was quite disappointed in the leather band color being off and not matching, the brown edged band just doesn't work on this black watch. As I noted in a comment I made in the discussion thread, an all black leather band with white stitching could have been nice. So I agree, the watch should be worn on the metal bracelet. I do however like the watch overall and quite enjoy the illumination.
JTam
29
Dec 5, 2020
FaastEddieI've updated my review today to reflect on the new pricing of the watch. I also saw your post in the discussions prior to writing my review and that's when I decided to pull the leather band from the packaging to look at it myself, as I was under the impression that the bands would be black. Thanks for the feedback on the discussion page as I probably wouldn't have pulled the leather band from its packaging for photos as I originally intended to wear the watch with the steel bracelet due to the hot and humid conditions here in Hong Kong.
tbjs
484
Dec 6, 2020
JTamNo casebacks are ever parallel/perpindicular in orientation to the rest of a watch. As for a crown stem being straight, you do realize the crown winds the watch, right? That's like walking up to a car in a parking lot and being mad all the logos on the hubcaps aren't straight...
JTam
29
Dec 6, 2020
tbjsI pointed the case back orientation and the crown's timing being off not as a negative, but for those who are curious. In fact, I only mentioned it because I remember seeing it in the comments that someone mentioned the same, and I thought to point it out in my review if potential purchasers care about this stuff. In any event you're wrong with your hubcap analogy because the case back and crown stem are mounted on threading, and the timing of the threads on both the case, case back, and the crown be manufactured such that the timing set to a certain position. Whether anyone expects a watch manufacturer to do so is another matter of course.
SugarRay
54
Dec 6, 2020
JTamWhen I saw the watch available again after the pre-order and the watch price drop from $999 to $699, my mouth dropped open. Drop used to be a site where prices were lowered when more people joined the drop. It’s fairly obvious their just in time business model has changed. I wonder if this is contributing to the lack of new products available. It’s actually made up my mind to unsubscribe from their emails.
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