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Tissot can be one of Swatch Group’s most surprising brands. Though it has carved itself a niche at the lower end of Swatch’s portfolio, Tissot watches shouldn’t be thought of as cheap. Sure, much of their catalog doesn’t break the bank, but the watches themselves are solid and, depending on the model, chock full of features that allow Tissot to blow away the competition (and that includes brands not even directly competing with Tissot that charge 2x or 3x the price for their wares).
A few years back, it was the impressive Ballade, which we covered here. That watch introduced the world to a Swiss-made, COSC-certified chronometer with a silicon balance spring for just $1,000. That’s really, really good.
This year’s surprise? Earlier this week, I got to spend some time with the new two-tone Gentleman collection. But you may be asking, what makes this series so special? Let’s dive right in.
I don’t normally do this, but let’s start with the price, because knowing the price right off the bat will contextualize the specs. List is $1,300. Knowing that, one might assume that the two-tone case is PVD-coated, but it isn’t. That bezel is actually 18kt solid rose gold, which is pretty nuts when one considers the general going rate of other two-tone watches. Then there’s the movement. Powering the Gentleman is Tissot’s Powermatic 80, which is a branded C07.111, which in turn is based on the ETA 2824, but with a boosted 80-hour power reserve. But that’s not all. On top of all that, there’s also a silicon hairspring here. So to recap, you’re getting a proven, supercharged movement on top of a solid rose gold two-tone case for not much over $1,000—it’s hard to knock that.
