At the Chemin des Tourelles 17 in Le Locle, you will find the headquarters of Tissot SA since 1907. Tissot named a collection after this street, called the Chemin des Tourelles (meaning as much as ‘Turret road’). And it is indeed a nice ‘Chemin’, where Tissot is located. A great reason to name a collection after it.
Tissot Chemin des Tourelles
The Chemin des Tourelles collection is not new, but Tissot added a couple of new watches with blue and brown dials. In their press release, Tissot states these colours are a ‘trend’, which is true, but which also has been a trend for quite some years now. Perhaps the news doesn’t travel that fast to the Chemin de Tourelles in Le Locle. In any case, Tissot achieved to create some pretty cool looking watches with – indeed – blue and brown dials, powered by their Powermatic 80 movement. More about the movement later.
Tissot has a long history, all the way back to 1853. It made some tremendously cool watches in the 20th century and even shared some movements and designs with Omega in the 1950s. Tissot had a couple of nice chronographs and diving watches, that, if you are into vintage watches, are worth looking for. Try the Tissot Navigator chronograph, for example, powered by a Lemania movement. Or the PR516 from the 1970s, with a similar Lemania based movement as the famous Moonwatch. When Swatch Group took over, a lot of brands that they acquired were repositioned. Brands like Longines and Tissot were positioned between the lower-end Certina and the higher-end Omega brand. Swatch Group cleverly (unlike Richemont) stacked their brands, so they would not cannibalize too much of their own group but rather fight competition from outside. For fans of vintage Tissot and Longines a pity, as these were differently positioned in the past than they are today, but good for newcomers and enthusiasts with a limited (or sane?) budget.
Powermatic 80
Back to the Tissot Chemin de Tourelles and its specifications. The Powermatic 80 is based on the ETA calibre C07.111, which is on its turn based on the classic and proven ETA2824-2. It has a power reserve of 80 hours (hence the name) and ticks at 21600vph. It is actually a pretty little movement, with the decorated rotor engraved ‘Tissot’.
The movement can be admired through a sapphire crystal that Tissot fitted in the case back. This snap-on case back has quite a number of engravings in the bezel, like the reference number, serial number, the brand name, its founding year and the level of water resistance. Oh, and the fact that it is made of stainless steel and has a sapphire crystal. A bit too much if you ask me, why not create an interesting engraving of the model name all around? But anyway, some watch enthusiasts might like a lot of specifications visible on the watch.
On the dial side, we find where the real beauty is of this watch. A very nice blue, or brown, dial. Either complete sunburst or with a touch of a Clous de Paris pattern around the centre part. The watch comes with either stick markers (sunburst version), or partly stick markers and Roman numerals. The Clous de Paris in combination with the Roman numerals makes the Tissot Chemin des Tourelles a bit more classic in my opinion. The Chemin des Tourelles watch comes with a matching (21mm) strap with alligator print and has a butterfly folding clasp.
With a diameter of 42mm, and a thickness of 10.9mm, it is a very easy fit for most of us I think. The watches are available either in normal (316L) stainless steel, or with a PVD rose gold coating. For the stainless steel models, there is also a stainless steel bracelet available, making the watch a bit more all-round.
The Tissot Chemin des Tourelles in steel and blue dials, as well as the PVD gold with brown dials, are available as of now, the blue dial version with the Roman numerals and leather strap will be available as of September 2018 (which strikes me as odd, as it only concerns a strap).
Pricing is as follows:
- Reference T099.407.16.047.00 (Sunburst), stainless steel, leather strap: 745 Euro;
- Reference T099.407.11.048.00 (Clous de Paris), stainless steel with bracelet: 795 Euro;
- Reference T099.407.11.048.00 (Sunburst), PVD rose gold, leather strap: 855 Euro;
- Reference T099.407.36.448.00 (Clous de Paris), PVD rose gold, leather strap: 855 Euro;
More information can be found on the official Tissot website.
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