Tissot Vintage
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Tissot Vintage
According to a longtime fan of the brand
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Composing a Best Of article is never an easy task. You need to have an excessive knowledge of the brand you are about to dissect. Model lines, various executions, and one-off pieces, if they exist, all have to be part of the pool you are choosing from. On top of that, one must keep in mind that Top XY or Best Of lists are subjective topics and, as such, need to be taken with a grain of salt. Well, I’m no Tissot expert by any means, but I’ve been a fan and collector of the brand for a long time now. So much so that when I was asked to compose this article on the best vintage Tissot watches, I was happy to take on the task.
My method was pretty simple: instead of focusing on my true favorites, which mostly come from one or two eras, I’d look at Tissot’s body of work in general. I tried to pick one piece from several different decades and expand the horizon on vintage Tissot .
Our very first timepiece comes from the first half of the 20th century. Tissot had been in business for many decades (established in 1885) when in 1930, the brand presented the world’s first anti-magnetic watch, the aptly named Tissot Antimagnetique. A small, rectangular piece, Art Deco in style to meet the design expectations of the time, the Antimagnetique was the first watch of its kind in series production. As such, the Le Locle-based brand beat competitors like IWC , Rolex , or Omega , though their resistance to magnetism might be higher.
Nevertheless, for this achievement alone, Tissot wrote itself into the history book of the watch industry. But the best was yet to come. Tissot Antimagnetique watches are fun little timepieces. They usually come in round cases and are easy to find, even today. But keep an eye out for the rectangular Art Deco version with the black dial and sub-seconds register. It’s a beautiful, historically significant piece and a vintage Tissot gem for any collection.
The same year the Tissot Antimagnetique came to the market, Tissot and Omega partnered up to create SSIH (Société Suisse pour l’Industrie Horlogére — Swiss Society for the Watch Industry). A few years later, in 1932, Lemania Watch Co. joined this association. The SSIH became something like a forerunner to the Swatch Group today. Each company had its own part in the alliance: Omega focused on the luxury segment, Tissot was responsible for the mid-tier price range, and Lemania became the exclusive movement supplier for many of the other two brands’ models. The second watch I’m picking for my list comes from the early to mid-1940s. It is the Tissot reference 6216 , a small, 35mm steel-cased chronograph with beautiful big Arabic numerals and three sub-dials. The numbers, as well as the large sword hands, are radium-filled. And the watch is a thing of beauty if you ask me.
Suppose you see a watch that looks very similar but has Omega or Lemania on the dial. If you do, don’t be surprised. At SSIH, the brands shared many of their suppliers and, it seems, often their model designs. That could be the reason that you might see virtually the same watches from the other two brands. Omega’s model was reference 2451, and Lemania’s reference was 174. Another important feature worth mentioning is that the movement inside all three watches, including the Tissot, is the 27 CHRO C12 movement by Lemania. This same caliber served as the base for Omega’s iconic 321 caliber that went into the earliest Speedmasters, among other models.
At the start of the new decade, in 1951, Tissot released an excellent and technically advanced model, the Navigator World Timer. You might have come across later Navigator models. Plenty came out in the late 1960s and early ’70s, which were large, often colorful chronographs. However, the Navigator I’m featuring was the first one, and what a unique watch that was. It is a smaller, 36mm steel-cased watch with a bumper automatic movement, caliber 28.5-N21. I cannot emphasize enough how important it was for Tissot to release the Navigator World Timer in 1951, making it the first automatic world-time wristwatch. Remember that the almighty GMT-Master’s first reference, the 6542, did not come to the market until 1954. And that was not a world timer, “only” a GMT. If you wonder what the difference is, look at this Tissot.
A regular GMT watch would only have an extra GMT hand, showing a second timezone along with the local time. Here, the dial consists of two parts. The outer portion is fixed and has a 24-hour scale. The inner dial has the timezones with a corresponding city on it, and it rotates once every 24 hours. Furthermore, the watch has a steel bezel for the local time. When traveling, the owner could set the watch to the current local time, and adjust the inner dial to keep track of time back home. Not to mention, 23 other timezones were always on display. That’s pretty ingenious for 1951 if you ask me.
Forgive me, but I’ll cheat here a bit and add yet another Navigator technically spanning two decades to this list. However, you will see that other than the model family, there’s nothing similar between the World Timer and this reference 45501. In the late 1960s and early ’70s, Tissot had a range of chronographs in the Navigator family. Six watches with 45XXX reference numbers housed automatic Lemania 1341, 1343, or 5012 movements. The reference 45501 came in two dial variants — panda and reverse panda. Like most watches in the ref. 45XXX series (except for the ref. 45500), these also had two sub-dials, with one at 6 o’clock and the other at 9 o’clock. I could have chosen any of the 45XXX watches. The reason I decided on this particular one is simple: I have one of these. The reason why I have it, though, might also support the selection of the ref. 45501 for this list.
Back in 2019, Tissot decided it was time to bring yet another vintage-inspired model to the market. The brand did this several years prior with the Navigator World Timer, which you can still buy today. Tissot chose the reference 45501 with a panda dial for its connection to car racing. I knew that I would get the then-new Tissot Heritage 1973 Chronograph , and on a whim, I bought its vintage counterpart on eBay. The watch was in dire need of a service, so off it went to the spa, but sadly, it had not returned before my review was due. So, I ended up covering the new watch in one article and wrote a #TBT about the Tissot Navigator reference 45501 . In conclusion, my pick does not only represent this watch but also any ref 45XXX chronograph from that era. These are all beautiful watches with a fabulous wrist presence and movement.
We can say many things about the 1980s, but it was not part of a golden era in terms of watch design. The pieces that saw the light of day for the first time in that decade were, for lack of a better word, stimulating. The ’80s is not my favorite decade in watch design, but we can still find a few models from each brand that stood out. For Tissot, the year was 1985, and the standout piece was the RockWatch. During the 1980s, the brands that had not succumbed to the Quartz Crisis a decade earlier were still struggling, and Tissot was definitely not immune to that struggle. The RockWatch , funny as it may sound now, was such a revolutionary invention that it saved the brand. People loved it, and orders flew in from all over the world. So much so that Tissot eventually had to create new jobs to meet the demand.
The RockWatch came in three sizes — 23, 30, and 33mm — as well as various stones. All of them housed a six-jewel ETA quartz movement. By modern standards, the timepiece can look gimmicky. It lacks the charm and class of pieces from the ’40s and ’50s. You also can’t find anything to match the daring, funky, and bold looks from the ’70s. Still, it was an overnight sensation that sold well worldwide. There was no question that I had to include in this list.
Tissot has so many models that we could fill up a book with them. Think of the PR 516 watches or the T12. Perhaps google the Tissot Sideral or Research Idea 2001, and let’s not forget about the various Seastar watches. These did not make it into this article, but who says we won’t do a Part Two? Until then, make sure you dig deeper into the beautiful world of Tissot, vintage or new (here’s the brand’s website to start). Let me warn you, though — it is a rabbit hole filled with magnificent timepieces.
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Thank you Balasz, Tissot really is a very fascinating brand with long tradition. There are so many beautiful interesting models – and very reasonable price-tags. The Reference 6216 Lemania chronograph is a classic beauty, that doesn’t need to hide its light behind other well-known exorbitant expensive competitors.
I see in the vintage watch shops here that asking prices for older Tissot, Certina, Mido, and other “lower end” Swiss watches are rising. Even the quartz references. Most all of these watches are selling for multiple times their original purchase price.
Hipsters do what hipsters do. They have the money.
I don’t know who is buying these watches. My 16 year old niece makes $16.00/hour at her very first job. I made less than $1.00/hour when I was the same age. My niece recently bought her own computer/printer and iPhone by herself, with no help from her parents. So yes, today’s young people have a lot more money and discretionary income than we did at their age. Talking about this is making me feel old. Will turn off my five year old computer and printer and go take a nap now. Cheers!
Tissot has a great back catalogue with the T12 chronograph and the PR 516 GL being personal favourites.
I thought Tissot was founded in 1853? You star 1885.?
You are right, it’s edited now. Thank you!
Many thanks for this nice article ! A pity there is no room for sending a couple of pictures here : I have inherited the tiny Tissot pocket watch from my father, an ultra thin gold treasure which I recently had restored ; dating back 1965, with a manual 181-1 movement ; really beautiful – Tissot is a class on its own, reasonable price and excellent quality watches !
Feel free to send some to me via email. I’d love to see the watch. Thank you for the kind words too.
Good article but surprised you glossed over the early 516 range. Or at least the short-lived PR 526 GL with the Omega 1022 movement. Rare and under rated.
Interesting but getting really irritated by the chauvinism in watch collecting, where “watch” always seems to mean “men’s watch” unless otherwise specified. Women’s watches are also watches, so if you’re talking about “best”, please make sure you aren’t leaving us out. Thanks.
Quite the selection from different eras
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In today‘s selection, you will meet an under-the-radar vintage Tissot chronograph with a Lemania movement, an unusual Worldtimer, and a quartz Tissot that helped get them through tough years and survive. We also won’t forget the constantly running monopusher Mediostat or the later lube-free plastic experiment Astrolon Watch…
One of the many models in the Tissot T12 line that includes a simple three-hander or compressor-style dial. They all share a chunky, round, and literally hard to overlook case with hidden lugs. This is ’70s style at its best. The chronograph version might be a surprise for you, especially due to the fact that it is powered by a Lemania 873 movement. If you didn’t know, that’s the exact same movement as the Omega 861 caliber. However busy and playful the design is, it’s still quite well organized and easy to read. Prices at around €1,000 with dealers, less if you are lucky at an auction.
The red sub-dial hands and diamond-shaped central chrono hand are my favorite details. Despite the fact that the T12 has a more-than-generous diameter, almost every single owner claims that the 43mm case wears smaller than its size. A last but not least detail to take into consideration when evaluating the T12 Chronograph is the original bracelet made by none other than Gay Freres. If you want to learn more about the vintage Tissot T12, don’t miss Mike’s comparison with the Seiko 6138 Yachtman.
It’s not your typical monopusher that performs the start-stop-reset drill over and over. The Mediostat and especially it‘s central chronograph second hand never sleep. A default pusher position means a constant flow. The hand only stops if you half-press the single pusher at 2 o’clock. A full press resets the central hand to zero and releasing the pusher makes the chronograph hand start running again. Pretty unexpected and amusing.
The vintage Tissot Mediostat was introduced to the market around 1942 and is powered by the Tissot caliber 27.53. There were multiple dial designs available, all carrying the beautiful Mediostat logo. That’s one of my all-time favorite watch logos. A Tissot Mediostat is not easy to find. I’ve only seen a few of them over the last two years. If you’re wondering about the price, just look at the last one auctioned on eBay . It had quite a tired dial and slightly crumbling hands with some lume missing, but it was still auctioned for over €1,000. Until you get one, here is our full #TBT review of Tissot Mediostat.
A Tissot watch where the discussion gets serious. I don’t need to explain much here, one brief look is enough to get you hooked. You can’t unsee all the Breguet Type XX, Zenith Cairelli, Lemania “Viggen“ for Swedish Air Force, or Breitling 817 watches. This clean and functional military dress in a 40mm diameter case is powered by a Lemania caliber 872. What I like the most is the “T-boxed“ logo and the beautiful creamy patina it usually comes with. Don’t be surprised if you see it coming with a bezel insert that has developed a neat “ghosted” patina. Be ready to pay anything north of €7,000 for a decent piece.
The 6216 family was launched around 1943 as Tissot’s stainless steel water-resistant line of sports chronographs with three sub-dials. It’s powered by the C27.41H caliber, which is nothing else than the CH27 C12. Still nothing? Think of the Omega 321 caliber instead of the legendary Speedmaster moonwatch. If it is out of your budget and you can live without galvanically applied copper on some movement parts, you can still get this caliber (with minor differences) in this beautiful Tissot. Although when in nice condition, the prices for the Tissot can climb up quite high as well. Take a black version of today’s featured 6216-4. It was auctioned for €4,000 without auction fees.
That’s quite a lot of money for a 36mm chronograph, I agree. Once you wind it and strap it on, you’ll get why they are so expensive. Especially if they come with an intact and beautifully aged lume and dials without a single stain or scar. No doubt these go on the list of the classiest chronographs from the 1940s. Stay tuned, we‘ll look deeper into the Tissot ref. 6216 soon on #TBT.
If we go a few years more into the past, we discover another caliber that would be a crime to omit. The Lemania 15CH was better known at Tissot and Omega in the 1930s as the caliber 33.3. It became quite popular due to the fact that it was used in military chronographs. Omega kept the premium line, Tissot was a brand offering good quality at competitive prices. But experts say the quality of movements did not differ much. Just look at this beauty with one pusher integrated into the crown. The chronograph function is activated by the top chronograph pusher and can be stopped and reset by the crown pusher. If you want one, add a few extra thousand on top of the Tissot 6216 prices.
Launched in 1953 to mark the Tissot centenary, which is a bit earlier than the legendary Rolex GMT Master. Unlike the model built until then, only one of the components which indicates the universal time actually moved. It was a disk in the center that made one complete turn in 24 hours. To set it, you align the disc showing your home timezone to midnight. Then you stop the disc using the pusher at 2 o’clock and then proceed to set the hour and minute hands as you always do. You can now read your hometown against the standard 12-hour time index on the fixed engraved bezel. The second time zone can be read agai
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