In 2016, Ball Watches ambassador Danny Thompson (whom the brand apparently refers to as a “Ball Explorer,” for some reason) achieved a piston-powered land-speed record of 406.7 mph, just beating out the previous record holder (who so happens to be his father, Micky Thompson) by 0.1 seconds. To celebrate, the brand known for its tough, luminous tool watches released the Roadmaster GMT, a limited edition watch of 1,000 pieces. Ball has opened the watch up for preorders, with a special price of only $1,659. Once the preorder period is over, though, that price shoots up to $2,999.
If you don’t care so much about limited editions or land-speed records, there’s good news here: aside from a limited numbering on the back of the watch, there isn’t much to distinguish this from a standard timepiece. At its core, it’s a good-looking watch with a lot of features for your money. You get an ETA 2893 GMT movement inside, your choice between a black or gray dial and a 42mm stainless steel case (which you can also get with DLC black coating). Like other Ball watches, it’s tough, being anti-magnetic to 4,8000A/m, shock resistant to 5,000 G’s and water resistant to 100 meters. The watch also features bright, colorful tritium tube lume, a feature that’s become something of a signature for the brand. And you even get to pick what number of the 1,000 available gets engraved on the back.
The super-low preorder price is available until May 28, with delivery expected in late summer of this year. Notably, this isn’t the only time Ball has offered special preorder prices (it did the same with its Engineer series in the past), so even if this piece doesn’t do it for you, keep your eyes peeled for other releases with similarly massive price cuts in the future.
