For many years BALL Watch has focused its research and development strategy on improving the anti-magnetic protection of its mechanical watches. 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.
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. This process helped endow the most highly-developed BALL timepieces with anti-magnetic protection guaranteed for up to 12,000A/m.
The A-PROOF® device is based on cutting-edge developments in terms of both materials and construction. BALL Watch has carefully selected mumetal – a material never before used in watchmaking – for the development of its new anti-magnetic protection device. Mumetal is an alloy of nickel, iron, copper and molybdenum with very high magnetic permeability, which enables it to attract and deviate static or low-frequency magnetic field lines.
In addition to this revolutionary new material, BALL Watch Company engineers sought to bypass the constant imprisonment of the movement in an anti-magnetic cage which renders the caliber mechanism of a watch equipped with a transparent background invisible. The solution: a diaphragm mechanism that extends or retracts at will by simple circular motion of the bezel. In the fully closed position, the diaphragm locks the mumetal anti-magnetic protection cage. In the retracted position, the diaphragm disappears to reveal the movement at work through the transparent case back of the Engineer II Magneto S.
The Engineer II Magneto S boasts a powerful and striking look with its case in stainless steel and a robust 42mm diameter, with a thickness of 12.5mm, its black dial, the green circle on the flange - the corporate color of the BALL brand - and its chiseled bezel.
The basic hours, minutes, seconds and date functions are ensured by a BALL RR1103-CSL caliber, COSC-certified. The Engineer II Magneto S is equipped with BALL’s patented SpringLOCK® system that guarantees the accuracy of the movement upon heavy shock impact.
One of the company’s guiding principles is that a watch should be easy to read both by day and by night. In order to ensure perfect time reading with its mechanical watches even in total darkness, BALL Watch Company uses cutting-edge Swiss technology involving the capture of H3 luminescent gas inside glass micro-tubes on all its models. This technology is a hundred times more powerful than other methods of lighting commonly used in watchmaking.
The watch's qualities are rounded off by a screwedin crown, an anti-reflective sapphire crystal, water-resistance to 100 meters and a shock resistance of 5,000Gs.
