It’s almost 12 months since I bought this Tissot Gentleman with the stunning green sunray dial powered by the very accurate Powermatic 80 movement. A watch I thought to be a perfect sports dress watch on a budget. This was a piece I bought to celebrate a career change. It wasn’t expensive or flashy, and to be honest, I had better things to spend my money on at the time. So it just goes to show that you don’t have to spend big to mark an occasion or have fun. There’s always something to suit a budget.
A few months back I was thinking of a small treat for my birthday. Something that could fly under the radar, if you get my drift. And then, on one of the Facebook forums I came across a pretty decent discount code for the UK based watch retailer, The Watch Hut. Not to miss a good opportunity, I was immediately drawn back to the Tissot range and the PRX. This is a watch that continued to intrigue me despite not warming to the quartz model, so I couldn’t resist the temptation and pushed the button as they say.
Tissot PRX Powermatic 80
Does the PRX Powermatic 80 punch above it’s £500 weight? Well it’s certainly worth a closer look.
The PRX Range
When I purchased the Gentleman, only the quartz PRX was available. Still a great watch at an amazing price, but it didn’t quite do it for me. The dial was a little too understated and I was a little triggered by the second hand ticking and missing the markers. I don’t mind a quartz watch, but my OCD pushed me towards the automatic Gentleman at the time.
Tissot PRX Quartz
In 2022, we now have multiple versions of the PRX. This year Tissot launched a whole range, cementing the PRX in the line up. New editions included new colours, straps and smaller sizes, and all available to buy right now.
Tissot has certainly capitalised on this retro bandwagon and carved out a nice little line that has real appeal to young and old. Watch brands really need to pull out the stops at this price point, having to compete with digital offerings like the Apple Watch and Fashion Watches in the 2 to £500 bracket.
The upcoming chronograph has a very Zenith Defy look to it and I can’t wait to try one on.
Tissot PRX Chronograph
Quartz vs Automatic
To differentiate the automatic version from the quartz, we now get a waffle pattern dial or what Audemar Piguet refer to as a Tapisserie dial, although not hand cut on a rose lathe as in the AP’s case. We also get a nice frame around the date window and anti-reflective coating. Are these enhancements enough tip the balance? Is all the hype, just hype or is this Royal Oak wannabe from Tissot a solid, interesting addition to my collection?
Tissot PRX White Dial
Retro design
I’m a child of the 70’s. A time when all I wanted was the latest in digital watches. Just like James Bond, who had hung up his Rolex Submariner for a Seiko. It’s what all the kids wanted. And to be fair, the Memory Bank Calendar used by Moore in Moonraker did have an integrated bracelet design, so was on point from a style perspective.
Seiko Memory Bank Calendar
During this time we were witnessing a significant near extinction level event of the mechanical watch, with the industry on it’s knees, trying to find relevance amongst the digital revolution from the far east.
How could you protect the passion, craft, engineering and historical importance of the mechanical watch? People were offered the future at a reasonable price, and who doesn’t want to follow Bond on his style journey?
Brands started using steel, mixed with perfectly executed design in their luxury ranges. In 1972 Audemars Piquet released the steel Royal Oak that Gerald Genta famously designed, using jewellery as his inspiration, followed in 1976 by the steel Patek Phillipe Nautilus.
Original Royal Oak Sketch by Gerald Genta
This allowed other brands to jump in, including Rolex with it’s Oyster Quartz, hitting both the fashion and technological buttons in one go.
Rolex Oysterquartz
Vintage Tissot PRX
Tissot like many others had a value proposition with it’s quartz based PRX in 1978. Where PR stands for Precise and Robust and X for 10 atmospheres or 100m of water resistance. Real sports watch features with the latest design trend.
Tissot PRX P480 35mm
There must be something about this design language that endures and tugs on the heart strings. In this new digital and connected era, people like a bit of nostalgia, physical things. We’ll never put streaming media back in the box, but us humans like to feel, and this watch has an amazing tactile nature. With the death of physical media, you can see why we have a resurgence of vinyl records. An imperfect, but tactile throwback that has an emotive side cassettes and CD’s can only dream of. You can enjoy your Apple Watch or Fitbit, but you also want the real thing. I’m not one for double wristing, but the choice is there.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph
I certainly felt privileged to spend time with a Royal Oak Chronograph recently, wearing very differently to your typical round sports watch. The glistening of the bracelet and the feel of the hand crafted edges. The PRX gives just enough to stir similar emotions.
PRX Specification
What we have here is the Tissot PRX Powermatic 80, reference T137.407.11.041.00. The long reference being pretty typical of Swatch Group, ahem! Omega.
Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 Blue dial
This version, with the blue dial retails at £565, but you can safely assume discounts will be available at most high street retailers, so no need to buy at this price.
The case and bracelet are made from 316L stainless steel with a tonneau design framing the round dial. This case is brushed all over bar a few areas of high polish to draw your attention. Notably the bezel which is polished and houses a flat sapphire crystal with anti reflective coating. There’s also a nice polished bevel running the length of the case breaking the edges up nicely.
Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 Black dial
As mentioned, the automatic has this very interesting waffle style dial and framed date window at the 3 o’clock. The date disc is white, which I don’t mind, but this does work better on the white dial version.
Tissot PRX White Dial
We have applied indices filled with a sliver of super luminova and I do like the matching baton style hands. These have blunted ends and I think they work a little better than those on the Gentleman. I think the dial design is pretty perfect with the subtle Tissot logo printed at the 12 o’clock and the Italic font of the PRX taking centre stage at 6 o’clock. The double lines of text top and bottom give the dial symmetry that’s otherwise missing on the quartz.
This watch is a bit of an awkward one to size up. The 316L stainless steel case is 40mm in diameter, which is a nice size so should fit most wrists. It has 100m of water resistance. True to the X in PRX. Lug to lug across the case is 45mm, but across the solid end links comes in at 51mm. For me 50mm is about right.
This is a slim watch. The quartz is a little slimmer, but at just over 11mm is still compact enough to slide under a shirt sleeve. I’m not a big fan of bangle watches, so appreciate a little height.
PRX Bracelet and Sizing
The bracelet has lobster tail style to it without the intermediate links you’ll find on the Royal Oak, but does still give a nice shimmer in the light like the significantly more expensive AP due to the flat, albeit brushed surfaces and the polish to the leading edge of each link. These are details that matter and give this watch real interest. The bracelet feels very delicate on the wrist next to the more robust affair on the Gentleman, but by no means does it feel cheap or fragile.
Tissot PRX Clasp
Tissot Gentleman Clasp
There’s no doubt this bracelet is machine finished, and I have to say I do prefer this style to that of the Gentleman’s that has a very little taper and the polish looks a little too industrial.
This bracelet tapers nicely from a nominal 27mm down to 18mm at the clasp. It has a similar butterfly clasp as the Gentleman with a robust and precise twin button release.
Sizing is pretty easy by just pushing the pins out. No screws here. Just make sure you push in the direction of the arrow on the rear of the link. These pins can bend if you’re too ham fisted, and they wont go back in afterwards. For my 6 ¾ “ wrist I have removed 2 full links either side of the clasp. There are half links to get the size just right, but as with this type of clasp, there’s no on the fly adjustment, so just make sure you size it a little over to allow for expansion of your wrist through the day.
Powermatic 80 Calibre 11 1/2″
The automatic version has an open case back where you can see the ETA derived Calibre 11 ½”. This is a slightly different version to that in the Gentleman and may explain why the PRX is a little cheaper. Here we’re down 2 jewels to 23 and missing some of the decoration. It still has that impressive 80 hours power reserve and is anti-magnetic with the patented Nivachron balance spring.
Tissot PRX Calibre 11 1/2″
Final Thoughts
So, summing up. Am I glad I bought this watch on impulse? The simple answer is yes. I think the watch is stunning value, and with its oddball, vintage look is a nice addition to my otherwise conservative collection.
I probably have enough Tissot in my collection now, but that Chronograph does look pretty special. Maybe in white. A blue, green and white dial collection for the price of a Tudor Black Bay 58. What’s not to like?
Tissot is a solid entry level brand from the Swatch group that offer a style of watch alongside Hamilton and Mido where real value can be found for under £1,000. And just like many micro brands that also offer a decent package in this price range, don’t let the budget aspect put you off. These may be made by machines, but are designed with care by humans who know a thing or two about design and engineering.
,aspect=fill;Crop=(0,0,1710,1710),gravity=Center)
,aspect=fill;Crop=(0,0,1710,1710),gravity=Center)
