Sistem Tissot? Swiss Mechanicals at Quartz Prices

It’s not the clean design that makes the Tissot Everytime Swissmatic so special. And it isn’t that it’s powered by a Swiss-made mechanical movement. It’s the fact that all of those things can now be had in a watch from a big Swiss brand at less than $500 retail. Tissot—one of  Swatch Group’s entry-level brands alongside the likes of Mido, Hamilton, and Certina—has made a splashy entry into the below-$500 price point with the Everytime Swissmatic. At $450 with a bracelet or $395 with a leather band, the Everytime Swissmatic is an aggressively priced offering coming in at less than half the MSRP of Tissot’s next family of mechanical watches.

Brands like Seiko have dominated the affordable mechanical watch market for years, scooping up die-hard followers along the way. Micro-brands have also been operating at this price point, as have digital, fashion and smart watches. And during that time, the vast majority of big Swiss watch manufacturers have been happy to stay relatively upmarket.

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The Everytime Swissmatic is no less than big Swiss’ move at an affordable price point that it has not been in quite some time. Swiss mechanicals—other than the fun and quirky ones made by Swatch—have largely been reserved to higher price points. And while Tissot has dipped into the under-$1,000 market before, the Everytime Swissmatic is priced like a Swiss quartz watch despite it being powered by a mechanical movement.

The design of the Everytime Swissmatic is simple and timeless. The dial has minimal design elements. Only “TISSOT 1853” and “SWISSMATIC” are on the dial—there’s nothing loud. Just simple indexes and a small date window at the three o’clock hour.

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If you’re eagle-eyed, you will note that the Swiss-made mechanical movement powering the Everytime Swissmatic is a reimagining of the one used in the groundbreaking Swatch Sistem51. Sistem51 made waves a few years back for being the world’s first mechanical movement that was entirely assembled by machines. It was made with only 51 components that were all held together with a central screw.

While the movement used in the Tissot Swissmatic is an adaptation of the Sistem51, brand representatives for Tissot explain that the current iteration was designed exclusively for Tissot. In this configuration, the mechanical automatic movement has a three-day power reserve. The components of the movement are manufactured and assembled by modules and soldered in Boncourt, Switzerland.

The 40mm Everytime Swissmatic comes in a variety of styles. The dial is available in both black and white. The case is available in either stainless steel or stainless steel with a rose gold PVD coating. The watches come paired with a vintage-style bracelet, a smooth or textured leather band, or a woven nylon strap. The Everytime Swissmatic has a sapphire crystal and is water resistant up to 30 meters or 100 feet.

Altogether, this is an interesting approach by Tissot, and we’ll be curious to see how the collection performs for the brand. If it does well, it’s not hard to imagine more products like this in the future. The Tissot Everytime Swissmatic is now available. Tissot

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