Think of Tissot and you probably think of quartz – in a good way. If you want to buy a chic watch from a serious Swiss brand at an affordable price, a Tissot Tradition (£215 for a rose gold version) is hard to beat. And Tissot is one of the few marques that really are synonymous with innovation: take the T-Touch, which integrates a quartz movement with a “touch screen” crystal. But behind the bright lights of its battery-powered endeavours you will find a robust tradition of mechanical watchmaking. These pieces have similarly carved out a reputation as value propositions. Just look at how much watch the upcoming Seastar 1000 squeezes into a £620 package.
GQ had exclusive access to this piece ahead of its summer launch. We wore it for a week and the most remarkable thing about it is its Powermatic 80 movement, which has a punchy 80-hour power reserve. That’s significantly more than the 36 or 48 hours that you normally encounter at this tier. Partly that’s achieved through a lower frequency – in layman’s terms, the seconds hand sweeps less smoothly than it might – and how you feel about that will depend on how often the watch is on your wrist. If this is going to be a “workweek beater”, you will appreciate that power reserve every time you come to put this watch on again come Monday morning and may therefore happily stomach a more visible tick.
What’s more, the anti-clockwise rotating bezel is made from ceramic, something you normally see in more expensive timepieces. This material retains colour and resists scratches far better than aluminium and has a lovely reflective quality that creates an illusion of depth. It’s a theme that runs into the dial: as you move your wrist its colours seem to shift subtly between black and dark blue, like gazing into the ocean.
Tissot bills the Seastar 1000 as “an elegant watch for watersport lovers” and, wearing it for a week, we were certainly struck by the jewellery-like quality of this latest iteration. The links of the Milanese strap, the interplay of brushed and polished steel in the case and the fluting of the bezel all conspire to make it perpetually catch the light. It is a watch that everyone will notice, not least because it is 43mm across and sits high on the wrist. As you might expect, it is thus reassuringly heavy – there’s nothing worse than a watch without ballast – and if you flip it over an exhibition caseback shows off the movement's decorations.
It’s not all about aesthetics, though. The watch is certified for dives down to 1,000ft (hence the name) – although due to circumstances beyond our control we were unable to verify this – and the chunky guards around the screw-down crown will protect it from serious knocks. The entry-level model, which was the one we trialled, comes with a date complication and the more expensive versions have chronograph functions. Don’t be fooled into thinking that Milanese strap is an affectation either – arguably it is better suited to diving than a metal link bracelet as there are fewer failure points. Of course, it does lend it a vintage quality too. This recalls Tissot’s long-established experience in the field of mechanical watchmaking – the brand is almost 170 years old and the Seastar line practically 70 – and is thus a neat rejoinder to the notion that Tissot is all about quartz. It’s also a reminder that there’s one other thing you’re getting for your money: heritage.
Out in the summer, £620. tissotwatches.com
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