The Watch Journey – The Watch Brand Tier List – Tissot

Welcome to the 8th instalment of my watch journey. The Watch brand Tier list currently stands at Rolex Last, Tudor second last followed by the fashion brands then Swatch watches. The next on the list is Tissot. 

Tissot is one of the original members of the Swatch Group but has managed to stay as a unique brand as a result. The Tissot brand is not meant to be a premium brand, they where to represent the affordable end of the market and to have mass market appeal, for those wanting a cheap ‘Swiss Made’ watch on their wrist. Tissot was setup as the answer to the Seiko and Citizen brands from Japan. This goes against their current Tissot equals luxury marketing campaign.

Like many Swiss watch brands they started of as watch case and part makers then pocket watches the wrist watches. The brand does go along with the buyer trends of using technology in their watch movements and have stayed relevant as a result. So they source mechanical and quartz movements, build smartwatches from other members of the Swatch Group and all with fashionable designs and colours. They have made some notable models over the years but the only technical advancements I recall is the Powermatic 80 movement which claims 80 hours of run time without having to wind or wear it and the T-Touch, the first smart watch I believe, for a Swiss company. 

Tissot gained some marketing traction recently with the entry level PRX series which like so many other brands uses the same case and bracelet and but offering it in different dial colours. I was going to buy one until I tried one and looked closely at Tissot’s build quality and design and found to was more generic Citizen in quality (which is very good) but not quite premium enough. The Tissot or Swiss brand did not win me over either. 

Tissot is higher on the tier list because to the non-watch enthusiast it is worth a small premium over competition due to it’s country of origin but nothing else. However during my watch journey the biggest problem with Tissot are the ‘independent’ influencers doing their overly glowing reviews are not helping as reality of the product in your hands as doesn’t match their hype.