The Dive Watch That Literally Stopped a Bullet Is Back With Some Upgrades

“Bulletproof” isn’t just hyperbole in this instance.

a ball dive watch that has been damaged by a bullet

Published December 20, 2024

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There’s no greater honor for a tool-watch brand than a story involving one of its watches surviving some sort of calamity against all odds. Omega has the Speedmaster’s exploits during the Apollo 13 disaster. Rolex has the Explorer prototype that accompanied the first successful summit of Mount Everest.

In 2023, Ball Watch got its story.

In August of that year, a police officer — whose name and jurisdiction have not been revealed — was struck in the wrist with a 9mm bullet during a harrowing incident. But the man suffered no serious injury to his wrist or hand. That’s because, miraculously, the bullet struck the Ball Engineer Master II Diver he was wearing, which acted as a de facto piece of armor.

The watch was, obviously, destroyed. The sapphire crystal shattered and the case and dial were irreversibly warped. But remarkably, its automatic movement remained in working condition. Ball credits this to its proprietary and patented Amortiser anti-shock system, but regardless of the reason, the evidence is pretty clear that Ball makes one hell of a tough watch.

The cop’s bulletproof watch was originally released back in 2008, and now Ball has released a new version inspired by the original but equipped with an even more robust build.

The Bulletproof Diver

The new watch, aptly dubbed the Ball Engineer Master II Ballistic Diver, makes a few improvements over the 2008 original.

a ball dive watch on sand — I don’t recommend you shoot this watch, but it might be ok if you did.

For starters, the dual-crown system and inner rotating bezel have been vastly improved. The winding crown has been moved from 3 to 4 o’clock, which offers better balance and improved comfort on the wrist, according to a statement from Ball’s watchmakers.

More notably, the 2 o’clock crown that controls the inner rotating dive bezel has undergone a complete redesign. It now features a push button design where it needs to be pushed into the case prior to turning it, which allows the bezel to be safely operated underwater — something that wasn’t possible on the original model.

The button system also features four gaskets to protect against water ingress, whereas a normal screw-down crown would include just two.

a ball dive watch seen from the side showing two crowns — The reworked case boasts a new dual crown system that allows for the inner bezel to be operated underwater without compromising the watch’s water resistance.

“Unscrewing and operating a standard crown under water would release the pressure on the gasket and may affect the water resistance,” a Ball rep tells me. “Thanks to our mechanism, we’re relieved of this constraint, and we can operate the inner bezel in a dive without affecting the water resistance.”

The watch also features a reworked dial that’s cleaner and more legible. The wavy texture of the original dial is gone, as is the day complication. The date has been moved from 4:30 to 3 o’clock and now has a cyclops magnifier.

Notably, there is also a lot more of Ball’s signature tritium gas lume on the new watch, especially on the indices and fully lumed bezel. The new Ballistic Diver features a total of 48 micro gas tubes, which is also 12 more than the current-generation non-Ballistic Engineer Master II Diver.

a ball dive watch with glowing tritium lume — The new diver features more lume than before, with a total of 48 micro tritium gas tubes on the dial and bezel.

Inside, the watch maintains the technology that originally accounted for its bulletproof nature — and then some.

The movement is still protected by the Amortiser anti-shock system and can withstand 5,000 Gs of force (or more, by the sound of it), and it is still water resistant to 300m. But its anti-magnetic resistance has been improved. While the original was only capable of resisting magnetic fields of 60 gauss, the new Ballistic Diver can withstand up to 1,000 gauss thanks to the movement’s protective Mu-metal shield.

Pricing and Availability

Ball already had a reputation for making metaphorically bulletproof watches, but with the new Ballistic Diver, we can take the reputation a bit more literally. (To be clear, Ball isn’t claiming its watches are bulletproof and you should definitely not test their durability with actual bullets.)

the caseback of a ball dive watch — Beneath the solid caseback is an abundance of tech to protect the movement from shocks and magnetism.

The Engineer Master II Ballistic Diver is a limited edition from Ball and is available with either a COSC-certified or non-chronometer movement, both of which are powered by an ETA 2892-based automatic. Both versions have black dials and look exactly the same save for the text at 6 o’clock, which reads “Chronometer” on the COSC version and “Automatic” on the other.

Ball often does special preorder pricing on its watches, and that’s again the case here. You can preorder the non-COSC version now for $1,949 or the chronometer for $2,199. After the pre-order window, the watches will retail for $2,299 and $2,599, respectively, with a planned release date of March or April 2025.

Ball Engineer Master II Ballistic Diver

Ball’s updated version of the dive watch that famously took a bullet features a new and improved case design with better crown operation and an internal bezel that can be safely operated underwater, along with better lume and greater magnetic resistance.