New Ball Watch Honors 100 Years of New York's Grand Central Terminal

New York City's iconic railroad hub, Grand Central Terminal, reaches its Centennial in 2013, and now Ball Watch, a brand indelibly linked to the history of railroading, is releasing a commemorative timepiece specially suited to the Big Apple's homesick travelers and expats: the Engineer Master II GCT, whose second-time-zone function uses Grand Central Time (GCT) rather than the traditional Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Click below for pictures and pricing. The watch, limited to 999 pieces, is in a 44-mm, stainless steel case and contains an automatic movement, Ball Caliber 651. It is available on a stainless steel bracelet or calf leather strap with a pin buckle, and features 15 self-powered micro gas tubes — a hallmark of the Ball brand — on the dial and hands, which offer outstanding luminosity in darkness. The crowning technical touch is the second-time-zone function, on a subdial at 6 o'clock, which displays Grand Central Time (that is, the local time in New York City's time zone), keeping the watch's owner in connection with the Terminal no matter where they’re at in the world. Ball's tribute to Grand Central Terminal can also be seen on the dial of the watch, where the traditional GCT logo sits next to the Ball logo, as well as on the watch’s caseback, which features an etching of the famous four-sided clock that has been a fixture in the Terminal’s main concourse for nearly a century. Packaging for the watch will include GCT's recently revealed Centennial logo. The Ball Engineer Master II GCT retails for $3,699 on a leather strap and $3,799 on a steel bracelet.

Technical characteristics: Movement: Automatic Ball caliber 651 Functions: Hours, minutes, sweep seconds; magnified date; second-time-zone indication Dial and hands: Black dial with 15 micro gas tubes on indices and hour, minute, and second hands for night reading capability Case: Stainless steel; diameter = 44 mm; thickness = 13.3 mm; nonreflective, convex sapphire crystal; screw-down crown; shock-resistant to 5,000 Gs; antimagnetic to 4,800 A/m; water-resistant to 100 meters; on stainless steel bracelet with folding buckle or calf leather strap with standard buckle Limited edition of 999 pieces