Tissot I noticed are doing some great watches of recent. This watch has an ETA 80 hour power reserve running at 3 Hertz, it is COSC certified. The latest incarnation of this watch has a silicone hairspring! The watch and its variations have nice details on the dial and case. Five or ten years ago this would not of been an option on a Tissot. In the UK the watch details for £750. That is serious value for money or bang for buck. The Tissot boutique in London reports service on these are £157. That is half the price of an Omega service and a third of the price of a Rolex service. This is a great first quality watch.

 

The absolutely stunning Certina DS PH200M Diver released at Basel this year utilises the same movement; it too is an absolute steal.

Am I right in saying that "service" = "movement swap"?

 

I think Mido use that same movement. These watches are all priced very temptingly.
I'll have another look at the Certina, I hadn't seen a chronometer rating.

 

Hmm, I don't think it is chronometer-rated, but I believe it is the same movement. Probably a bit like the 552/551 and the like from the glory days of Omega

 

Do you mean Midoa copy of the ETA

Movement swap? I thought only Seiko did that. Aren't Tissot watches dismantled and oiled like others?

 

I mean this:

Mido is part of the Swatch group, so they use ETA based movts. The Mido 80 has silicon balance spring & 80hr reserve.
Caliber 80 Chronometer Silicon | Mido

 

Mido cal 80 has 25 jewels.
Certina chronometer version has 23 jewels.
Tissot has 23.

 

I can't get past the way that the Swatch group have uglified the Tissot and Certina logos.

There's some beautiful typography in both brands histories, and yet Swatch have gone for something sans serif, and a year.

Lazy bullshit.

 

There are so many brands putting a year on the dial, it is bound to be a fashion that kills itself. I haven't payed attention, maybe they are all Swatch brands.

 

I believe it is a case of purposefully branding the marques lower than the higher-cost alternatives of Swatch group. Look at Tissots from the 1940s and forward; with a few exceptions they've been marketed as a lower cost alternative to Omega and case finishing and a lot of other points (mostly cosmetic) have been of lower quality than Omega.

Like an Austin Allegro 1.5 and a Vanden Plas 1500

 

I thought I remembered something about a lot of the movement being made out of plastics, but looking it up I cannot find anything to back that up.

 

I read something a few years ago about Tissot chronographs having lots of plastic to keep the price down. I can't verify that.

 

First silicone silicon.

One is used for breast implants, the other for balance springs...it's the second one that is used in this watch.

The Powermatic 80 gets it's increased power reserve in part by lowering the frequency.

The technical information I have states that the COSC Powermatic 80 movements are not serviced, which means they would be exchanged. Note that many brands exchange movements rather than servicing them - they include Omega, Tudor, Cartier, and I'm sure many more that I haven't heard of yet...

 

Wouldn’t exchanging a COSC rated movement also require a change in serial number?

 

It depends what you are really asking, and what you mean by "require"...

Each COSC movement has a unique serial number, so yes of course a different movement will have a different serial number.

But if you are saying this would "require" some other change, then no that's not necessarily the case. I have no idea if these lower end watches have serial numbers on the case, but if they do then the records could simply be updated to show that case number X now has a different movement inside. It would really depend on how the brand wants to handle this, and if they know they are going to be swapping movements, it's doubtful they would want to make a ton of extra work and expense (like changing the serial number on the case at every movement swap) result from that policy.

 

I'm with you here.

I recently bought a vintage Tissot, which was a nice addition to a modern Visodate I bought 4 years ago.

Vintage:


Modern:

I disagree on this point. I know there are many different dials and references, but the Visodate I got 4 years ago has a much nicer dial (to me anyhow) than the one you show.

The Visodate has applied logo and indeces that look much nicer than what looks to me like 'photo-shopped text' on the Heritage.

Visodate:


Heritage:

 

My modern tissot is nothing fancy, but it was my first mechanical watch. I just so happen to be wearing it today so here’s a pic just cause

 

Like you, Tissot was also one of my first mechanical watches and I also happen to be wearing it today... My photography skills mixed with a sub-optimal iPhone 6S camera don't make for nice photos of this one, but here it is.

 

Does that mean that cheaper Tissot automatic watches would have movements swapped and not serviced also? You mentioned Omega do this as well on some movements. What Omega movements would not be serviced?