Ball Engineer III Bright Path Celebrates American Legend Jim Thorpe with Tigerite Dial

A watch is made of many parts but for collectors the most important ones are often the dial, the case and the movement. However, another key part of a watch is the story behind its creation and the people and objects that inspire them. That’s especially true of the Ball Engineer III Bright Path, which features an unusual tigerite dial.

The story of the Bright Path is linked to that of Jim Thorpe, an American athlete born in 1882 who would later become the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the USA. Thorpe’s Native American name was Wa-tho-huk, which translates to Bright Path, hence it being adopted as the Ball’s name. His route through sport and the Olympics is quite the tale of resilience and motivation as bright as his name.

While competing in the decathalon, a brand new event at the 1912 games, he discovered that someone had stolen his track shoes. He ended up scavenging a mismatched replacement pair, one from a bin and the other from a teammate, and went on to win gold despite the setback. At the same games he also won gold in the pentathlon, came fourth in high jump and seventh in long jump. However, a year later his medals and titles were stripped from him as it was discovered he had previously been paid as a semi-professional baseballer, violating the Olympics’ strict rules on amateur athletes at the time.

The decision to strip his medal and title was controversial because it was decided after the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s 30-day period for challenges and disqualification following the closing of the games. It wasn’t until 1983, 30 years after his death, the IOC reversed the decision and posthumously re-awarded the titles and medals – in line with the relaxing of rules related to amateurism in sport. Though in his life Thorpe made the best of the situation because if the IOC were going to declare him a professional, he may as well join some professional teams, becoming a star of baseball, football and basketball.

How does that translate into a watch from Ball? Well, the Engineer III is one of their sportiest models with shock resistance to 5,000Gs, anti-magnetic to 1,000 gauss and water resistant to 100m, making it as versatile as Thorpe himself. In terms of size, the Ball Engineer III Bright Path is available at 36mm, 40mm and 43mm, adding another layer to the model’s versatility.

What really makes the Ball Engineer III Bright Path stand out though is the tigerite (aka tiger eye) semi-precious stone dial. Ball are not a brand typically associated with stone dials so it’s been interesting to see them slowly expand the number of watches that feature them, such as their recent Year of the Snake release in malachite. The logic of using tigerite here is the gold colour is symbolic of Thorpe’s gold medals. Beneath the surface of the 36mm edition is the COSC chronometer BALL RR1101-C, based on the ETA 2892-A2 with 42-hour power reserve, while the 40mm and 43mm house the BALL RR1103-C, based on the ETA 2824-2/Sellita SW200 with 38-hour power reserve, also COSC certified.

In terms of price and availability, it’s limited to 1,000 pieces at each size with prices of £2,020 for the 40mm and 43mm and £2,270 for the 36mm (due to the slight differences in movement). As an unusual Ball timepiece that combines sportiness with a semi-precious dial and an inspirational story about a sportsman who more people should know about, it’s a cool watch.

More details at Ball.

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