The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I took a drive over to Bozeman (city in Montana, USA) today to drop off an old Elgin family pocket watch to have it restored and pick up my overhauled Rolex DateJust from a great shop. I thought I would pass this on to any of ya'll out there that may need to have some vintage or modern watch repairs done.

The name of the shop is The Last Windup and I must say they did a wonderful job in restoring my circa 1978 Rolex DateJust. David Berghold, the owner, and his staff are very friendly, knowledgeable, and run a top notch operation. He specializes in restoring old vintage pocket watches, but Dave is capable of working on and restoring nearly any timepiece, be it from the 1600’s or a modern timepiece. With the spread of the internet, the business has developed and maintained customers from all around the country.

David's assistant Jeana Kroes, graduated from the Oklahoma State University's Watchmaking and Microtechnology program, receiving a WOSTEP (Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Education Program) Certification. She also worked for Rolex at the Technicum in Lititz Pennsylvania prior to relocating to the Bozeman area and she will be assisting David to become Montana's only Authorized Rolex Repair Facility. The Last Windup is beautifully decorated and provides a good assortment of vintage and modern day time keeping instruments.

Karen Pratt, the store manager, introduced me to a line of watches they offer called the Ball Watch Company and I must say they did impress me. The Ball Watch Company traces it's roots back to a train wreck which happened in 1891 involving the collision of 2 mail trains in Ohio. The cause of the accident was determined as an error in time keeping due to a faulty timepiece. This prompted the birth of the Ball Watch Company when Webster Ball was enlisted by the Lake Shore Railroad as Chief Time Inspector and thus the creation of the famous "Railroad" watch.

At any rate for those of you interested in further information I have provided links below to both The Last Windup and the Ball Watch Company, so go check them out and see what you think.

The Last Windup
http://www.lastwindup.com

The Ball Watch Company
http://www.ballwatchusa.com/

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I am a big fan of ball watches for what they are. Some offerings are priced closer to Breilting and Omega, and those are nice, but I think more traditional watches of that ilk probably are a bit more refined.

However, where they really shine is the in the $1000-$2000 range. I think the watches they produce are more desireable than a lot of the Tag watches out there. All in all I think they have a pretty nice piece of the market

That is exactly what I thought too Thomasenlow....they make a good watch using all ETA's and some of the features they offer are very interesting to say the least. The other thing I liked was they are a US watch company/design although made in Switzerland which gives it a bit of a patriotic flavor to them.

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Ball's are super nice watches ,and command respect!!! They make some awesome pieces ,and most are all below 2k. The lume on them is stunning/ its not really lume but gas tubes. The mad cow ,and Trieste chrono are amazing ,and can be had used for 12 to 1300 . I am thinking of a Ball or a Omega 1932 olympics, haven't made up my mind yet

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One Watch At A Time.