TISSOT - Any good?

[mollytherocker]

Saw this at the weekend and love it! Whats the quality like? Any good?

http://www.ernestjones.co.uk/webstore/detail/R/538...

[Slagathore]

http://www.watchwizard.co.uk/acatalog/PRC_200_Coll...

http://www.watchshopuk.com/gents-tissot-prc200-wat...

Cheaper from those two places!

As for your original questions, not got a bloody clue

[CmdrBond]

Tissot is a good make with plenty of history. I have not got a Tissot watch myself, but from what I have read and heard, they are of good quality and certainly a good place to start a collection.

I have found during the last year or so, that the question is do you like it?? would you wear it proudly?? If you can answer yes to both, then you cannot go wrong.

BTW, it is a very nice piece of kit and I certainly would buy one if I were in the market for another chronograph.

Hope this helps a little,

Regards

Chris

[mollytherocker]

sgathore said:

http://www.watchwizard.co.uk/acatalog/PRC_200_Coll...

http://www.watchshopuk.com/gents-tissot-prc200-wat...

Cheaper from those two places!

As for your original questions, not got a bloody clue

Thanks for the tip! They have a nicer one with a white face!!!

http://www.watchshopuk.com/gents-tissot-prc200-wat...

[cyberface]

mollytherocker said:

Saw this at the weekend and love it! Whats the quality like? Any good?

http://www.ernestjones.co.uk/webstore/detail/R/538...

Wouldn't pay that much for a quartz watch these days TBH - do they do a mechanical version of the same model?

Tissot also do some interesting 'high-tech' watches (i.e. not mechanical) with touch-sensitive dials and multiple functions. The titanium T-Touch watch intrigues me... if it wasn't £460 then I'd buy one just for the fun technology

If you're more into the traditional chronograph look, wouldn't you prefer a mechanical automatic though? If Tissot do one that's the same but mechanical (like Porsche Design do) then it'll be more expensive. May be worth looking at Chronomaster's site, they have reasonably priced mechanical chronos. If it's the one I'm thinking of (from dial config, date position and 10th-seconds readout on the top right subdial) then it's used both in much cheaper watches (a work colleague has one that he paid £60 for - not a Tissot but some random Swiss brand he picked up whilst skiing) and incredibly overpriced items like the Porsche design PAT quartz. It does a neat trick of rotating all the dials clockwise with stepper motors when you reset the chronograph, which looks really cool. Unfortunately it eats batteries if you use the function a lot!!!!

IMO the case looks great, love the yellow highlights but think the bottom dial should have a yellow hand as well. Spoilt by the big T on the chrono second hand though for me.

If that is the stepper-motor quartz movement I'm thinking of then it is actually quite appealing when it spins all the hands round for you (I've got one, in a different case from a different manufacturer) but the batteries really don't last long (a year tops IME)...

I really wouldn't pay over the odds for the Tissot name on a standard movement watch though. Their touch watches are cool (and what I associate Tissot with nowadays, funnily), but given that you're not buying a bracelet watch, the 'quality' is largely in the finish of the case (which looks good) and the strap, which is readily replaceable at low cost with high quality replacements. Definitely buy on price if you love it, but I wouldn't worry about 'quality' - Porsche Design get away with selling that movement for more than a grand...

[lowdrag]

It struck me that there is an uncanny resemblance between this watch and those at Werners. Now Tissot are an old name but looking through the range now they do seem to be a triumph of marketing over substance relying on past glories. Not trying to dissuade you but have a look here at one third of the price; there is a thread on them and most people seem very satisfied. I bought one out of curiosity and find it well made and good value for the money really.

http://www.wernersflyingwatches.com

[carter711]

The Tissot you've found is a little over priced at £220 but it's a good looking watch, It will lack a sapphire crystal glass which is not only scratch proof but really makes the look of a watch in my opinion as it's extremely reflective and bright. It will also lack a mechanical movement but at this price range that is to be expected really.
If i were you i'd have a look at www.christopherward.co.uk, especially the C3 Malvern Chrono, it features a sapphire crystal glass and really looks the part, the downsides are a quartz movt and water resistance to 50m, so you can't really take it swimming but for £130 it is a quality watch.

[t0ny99]

cyberface said:

If it's the one I'm thinking of (from dial config, date position and 10th-seconds readout on the top right subdial) then it's used both in much cheaper watches (a work colleague has one that he paid £60 for - not a Tissot but some random Swiss brand he picked up whilst skiing) and incredibly overpriced items like the Porsche design PAT quartz. It does a neat trick of rotating all the dials clockwise with stepper motors when you reset the chronograph, which looks really cool. Unfortunately it eats batteries if you use the function a lot!!!!

Swatch? It has the same layout as my "Dark Phoenix", and that motors all the hands back round to zero - a very addictive novelty! The Tissot is better looking than my Swatch - I do like the white dial version someone posted.

One thing I always thought strange with this 'movement' is the chronograph uses the big second hand, whilst the time second hand is the small lowest dial.

[stimmers]

mollytherocker said:

Saw this at the weekend and love it! Whats the quality like? Any good?

http://www.ernestjones.co.uk/webstore/detail/R/538...

i have that watch, really like it !!! Can't speak for the quality, but it tells the time well ! ha ha

[456mgt]

I have two Tissot watches; a T-touch and one of these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRAND-NEW-MENS-TISSOT-T-RACE... Both excellent everyday items, though in reality the functions on the T-touch are little more than toys. The temp function measures the temperature on your wrist; the altimeter disagrees with that on my sat nav and the altitude signs in mountains and compass is pretty useless. Alarm function is fine, date function is PITA.

[cyberface]

t0ny99 said:

cyberface said:

If it's the one I'm thinking of (from dial config, date position and 10th-seconds readout on the top right subdial) then it's used both in much cheaper watches (a work colleague has one that he paid £60 for - not a Tissot but some random Swiss brand he picked up whilst skiing) and incredibly overpriced items like the Porsche design PAT quartz. It does a neat trick of rotating all the dials clockwise with stepper motors when you reset the chronograph, which looks really cool. Unfortunately it eats batteries if you use the function a lot!!!!

Swatch? It has the same layout as my "Dark Phoenix", and that motors all the hands back round to zero - a very addictive novelty! The Tissot is better looking than my Swatch - I do like the white dial version someone posted.

One thing I always thought strange with this 'movement' is the chronograph uses the big second hand, whilst the time second hand is the small lowest dial.

Hmmm.... all chronographs that I'm aware of (including all the mechanical ones, from Valjoux 7750s to Patek rattrapante ultra-expensive split-seconds jobbies) use the 'big' centrally mounted second hand as the 'chronograph' as per the seconds timed from when you press the button. I've never seen one that has a constantly rotating central second hand, but uses a sub-dial as the chronograph.



This piqued my interest so I've just pulled apart, cleaned and replaced the battery on my Porsche PAT quartz chrono (yes, I'm the fool who went against all of my current principles... I'll cite youth as a defence), and the movement in the Swatch and the Tissot is *not* the one in the Porsche. I knew there had to be a reason for me having a quartz chrono in my collection - it's been sitting with a dead battery for a few years since I badly scratched the black PVD coating whilst canyoning in Scotland on a stag do (so much for ultra-tough PVD coating eh... ) in my watch box and I couldn't for the life of me work out what it was doing there, given that it was the best part of a grand for a quartz chrono, which horrifies me thinking about it now.

The reasons I've got the PAT (porsche aluminium titanium) watch are (a) it's actually a split-seconds chronograph with two central second hands - you can stop and start both independently of each other, and the white hand *keeps time* whilst standing still - you press the button, the hand stops, you read off the time reading (including 10ths of a second, which mechanical watches aren't quite up to), then press the button again and the white hand motors round to where it would have got to if you hadn't stopped it. Incredibly cool movement, even though it's electric. The other reasons are (b) it's titanium and aluminium, light, tough and comfortable, and (c) I got seduced by Porsche Design marketing - I think the watch shop had a model of a 993 GT2 next to the watch or something...

Very cool movement though. A couple of years later came the IWC Doppelchronograph incident where I desperately wanted a proper mechanical watch with split-seconds like the PAT.... only to find that the Doppel was far too big for my wrist. Bitterly disappointed, I really wanted that watch, but it looked ridiculous.


Interesting you say that Swatch have stepper-motor chronos in their range though (not surprising, since it's probably one of ETA's vast range of quartz movements, and Swatch own ETA) - are they expensive? I like some of the Swatches, they're funky and good for a laugh, but once they've gone past £50 I'm not interested.

[t0ny99]

cyberface said:

Interesting you say that Swatch have stepper-motor chronos in their range though (not surprising, since it's probably one of ETA's vast range of quartz movements, and Swatch own ETA) - are they expensive? I like some of the Swatches, they're funky and good for a laugh, but once they've gone past £50 I'm not interested.

From memory (I bought it a couple of years ago as an every-day knock around, now relegated to the watch box) I paid about £50-60. They are on Amazon UK for £80 right now. Since this thread I have been playing with the chrono', just so I can zero the hands again...

ETA: On-topic, I bought my brother a Tissot a couple of years ago - quality seemed good; if I had to be critical I'd say the bracelet felt a little lightweight, but I'd say the same about my Seikos.

Edited by t0ny99 on Thursday 26th June 12:02

[eccles]

Or for a fraction of the price but the same look how about a Timex?

Black face....

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2...

They also do a white faced version as well

In the flesh the watch is quite large, and looks good quality