Having a Ball

A look at the revolutionary new Engineer II Magneto S from BALL Watch Company

As part of its constant quest to innovate and to build on the extraordinary technical prowess of its mechanical watches, BALL Watch Company presents the new Engineer II Magneto S equipped with the revolutionary A-PROOF® antimagnetic device.

For many years BALL Watch has focused its research and development strategy on improving the anti-magnetic protection of its mechanical watches. The accuracy of a mechanical watch is easily affected by the magnetic fields to which we are exposed almost constantly in everyday life. The briefest of contacts with an artificial magnet may be enough to magnetize an automatic movement and cause the complete stoppage of the mechanism. According to accepted standards in watchmaking, an automatic watch is deemed "anti-magnetic" when its operation can resist a magnetic field of at least 4,800A/m without its accuracy being subsequently affected by more than 30 seconds per day.

BALL Watch unveils its stunning new concept of protection against magnetic fields. Developed and patented by BALL Watch, the A-PROOF® device is a completely new approach to the protection of a mechanical movement. The preservation of the workings of a watch caliber requires it to be enclosed in a casing that protects against the influence of magnetic fields. BALL Watch equips its antimagnetic models with specially constructed stainless steel cases which resist ferrite corrosion. Until now, the anti-magnetic casing has taken the form of a soft iron inner structure, consisting of a rear plate and a ring surrounding the movement and the dial. Soft iron, reinforced by the shape of the inner case, channels the magnetic fields and prevents them from entering the movement, thus avoiding any adverse effect on the accuracy of the watch. This process helped endow the most highly-developed BALL timepieces with anti-magnetic protection guaranteed for up to 12,000A/m.

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