Many watch enthusiasts argue that Swiss brands offer the best in watches and engineering efficiency.
That’s because these watch brands specialize in high-quality timepieces with a focus on quality and craftsmanship. As a result, these brands have stood the test of time and have remained relevant through both the quartz crisis and the current digital revolution.
Among these Swiss brands, Tissot is noteworthy for continuously offering premium quality watches at relatively affordable prices.
They’re also one of the most successful Swiss brands as well––the company has worked for centuries to perfect their approach to watchmaking, and they continue to offer beautiful, stylish watches.
Another attractive element of Tissot is that they offer all the perks of Swiss engineering in an accessible package. They make watches that are great for every type of watch wearer, from the everyday enthusiast to the serious collector.
Plus, Tissot watches are readily available to purchase from places like Amazon or Jomashop.
Quick Take
Short on time? Here are our top three picks for the best Tissot watches you can buy right now:
The Seastar is an elegant, stylish dive watch that doesn’t look out of place in formal occasions. This 42mm diver wears incredibly well and offers 300m of water resistance.
Tissot T0354461105100 is generally minimalist and adaptable timepiece. This watch is injected with all sorts of modern features taken from both the dress and sport categories.
The Couturier is a 43mm stainless steel watch with an automatic movement, silver indices, and a sapphire crystal. What separates the Couturier from other chronograph watches is its unique take on the day-date complication.
Read on for more info and the complete list…
History of Tissot
Founded in the Swiss town of Le Locle in 1853, Tissot began as a small family company. However, it didn’t start as an independent watchmaker. Instead, Tissot spent many of its early years constructing watch parts for other companies.
The company then transitioned into making pocket watches like many other established watch brands of the time. During this time, Tissot garnered numerous awards for their industrial ingenuity.
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By the early 1900s, Tissot had become a brand name. Along the way, it had gotten the attention of other powerhouse brands. One of those brands, Omega, ended up merging with Tissot. After the merger, Tissot enjoyed tremendous growth throughout the 20th century.
Taking advantage of their success, Tissot launched a series of aggressive marketing campaigns and sponsorships. They partnered with many athletes and celebrities who represented Tissot and helped to increase the brand’s visibility.
Those sponsorships and campaigns are why Tissot is so well-known today.
Are Tissot Watches Good?
Yes! Tissot is a genuine Swiss brand with a storied reputation. They also do a great job of offering tremendous pieces at a variety of price points.
As a result, Tissot is one of the few brands that you’ll find in the collections of both budget-minded collectors and luxury connoisseurs.
Tissot’s partnerships with stalwart brands like Omega and Swatch allow them to offer tremendous value. The automatic movements found in Tissot watches are comparable to the movements found in much more expensive watches.
The 11 Best Tissot Watches
Here they are…
Tissot PR 100 Men’s Chronograph
Tissot’s chronograph offerings are some of the best in the industry. The PR 100 is one of their more affordable chronographs that’s strikingly stylish.
The PR 100 is a 41mm stainless steel quartz watch that retails for $395 although you can find it on Jomashop for $245 and on the used market for even less). It features sturdy pushers, 30m of water resistance, and lumed hands.
There are several dial color options, including black, silver, blue, and even mother of pearl.
However, the most appealing factor of the PR100 is the chronograph itself. Many chronograph watches look too busy, but the PR100 offers a clean, simple design.
The chronograph functions seem to disappear in the background but are legible when needed. Another standout feature of the watch is that it pairs well with both leather and steel bands.
Tissot Seastar 1000
The appeal of dive watches is their utilitarian cool. They look good in just about every situation. However, dressing them up can be a difficult challenge.
To answer that call, Tissot released the Seastar 1000. The Seastar is an elegant, stylish dive watch that doesn’t look out of place in formal occasions. This 42mm diver wears incredibly well and offers 300m of water resistance.
The Seastar also features the brand’s efficient automatic movement and a sapphire crystal.
The dressy appeal of the Seastar is the understated yet beautiful minimalistic blue watch face with a simple date complication. While it offers the traditional circular markers, the overall construction of the watch makes it look distinguished and modern.
More importantly, the Seastar retails at roughly $700, which makes it easily one of the best sub-$1000 watches from any brand, period.
Tissot Everytime Swissmatic
Tissot excels at offering high-quality watches at relatively affordable price points. However, even by their standards, the Everytime is one of the best value watches on the market.
The Everytime Swissmatic is a 40mm automatic watch that also features a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal.
The Everytime is one of the most popular watches for watch enthusiasts. For roughly $400, the Everytime offers some of the best Tissot has to offer, from their popular movements to the sleek watch case.
With minimalistic branding and a simple date complication, the Everytime Swissmatic is a dressy watch that’s also not out of place for everyday casual wear, making it an extremely versatile watch.
Tissot Tradition Men’s Chronograph
Silver dial watches offer a clean style aesthetic that is nearly impossible to get wrong. However, many watch companies still stick with black or blue dial watches. Hence, when we see a silver dial, it immediately stands out.
Enter the Tissot Tradition chronograph. This is a 42m stainless steel chronograph watch with many appealing features, including a sapphire crystal, 30m of water resistance, stainless steel pushers, and classic indices.
In addition to the traditional chronograph functions, the Tradition offers a date complication between 4:00 and 5:00.
The Tradition can be purchased from most retailers at roughly $300, which is a fantastic price for a well-made chronograph.
Tissot Automatic Couturier
Chronograph watches can often be very formulaic. It’s rare for a brand to be able to break the typical chronograph mold, but Tissot has managed to offer a refreshing take on the chronograph with the Couturier.
The Couturier is a 43mm stainless steel watch with an automatic movement, silver indices, and a sapphire crystal. However, what separates the Couturier from other chronograph watches on the market is its unique take on the day-date complication.
It displays the day and date as the ‘fourth’ chronograph window, which provides a nice, balanced look. While this is a small detail, it adds a lot to the Couturier.
The Couturier is on the more expensive side at $800-$900. However, for those that love the look of the Couturier and are okay with sacrificing some of the higher-end features, a quartz option sans the day-date complication is also available at roughly $300.
Tissot Couturier Chrono Quartz T0356171605100
Unabashedly aesthetic-focused, but at a much higher status than even a great fashion watch, the Tissot Couturier Chrono Quartz has a lot going on.
It combines a dimensional, multi-surfaced design with an elegantly smooth silhouette—which is why its embossed leather strap looks perfectly appropriate despite the heavily sporty details.
The combination is an overall modern take of a mostly on-template chronograph.
Close subdials, perfectly applied indices (accented with perfectly applied paneling in between each index), are complemented by button pushers that stick out for easy use and an athletic look. But, they’re still deep enough that they don’t fully interrupt the silhouette.
With 100 meters of water resistance and a sapphire crystal, this 41mm watch is durable and runs on an accurate Swiss quartz movement.
Tissot V8 T1064071105100
The Tissot V8 Swissmatic is a regulation luxury sport watch, with added distinctness that doesn’t take away from its versatile boilerplate design. Think of it as “classic-plus.”
The 42.5mm is robust, while the excellently-brushed tachymeter bezel is inspired by car dashboards. Its sapphire crystal, 100 meters of water resistance, and high legibility make the V8 a practical everyday watch.
However, the Tissot hands, including the T-shaped second, and the granularly-textured dial make this watch stand out, without being too loud. Basically, it isn’t just some Explorer I knock-off.
Moreover, it’s powered by a 19-jewel Swiss automatic movement with an impressive 72-hour power reserve, that you can admire through the exhibition caseback. And with its cut-out style top layer, bright jewels, and gold cogs, it’s a movement definitely worth looking at.
Tissot T0354461105100
The most commendable overall quality of the Tissot T0354461105100’s design, is how sectioned-off and lowkey complex it is, though all the elements come together for a generally minimalist and adaptable timepiece.
It’s a testament to the fact a watch can indeed be simple but interesting.
Tissot achieves this by implementing an almost vintage silhouette, with a flat crown so that the lines remain as smooth as possible. Though the 41mm case size is pretty contemporary, its 11mm height (made possible by a thin and accurate quartz movement inside), provides a pretty comfortable wear.
From here, this watch is injected with all sorts of modern features taken from both the dress and sport categories. The skeleton hands are both irreverent and sterile, yet highly legible on the stark black background.
Meanwhile, the lugs swoop gracefully, showcasing two surfaces from above for a touch of lightplay, before transitioning into a clever alternating-linked bracelet.
Tissot T17158652 PRC 200 Chronograph
Another classic Tissot visual balancing act, this PRC 200 Chronograph features a wildly maximalist face, tempered with a refined and clean case shape.
Starting with the dial—the cardinal numbers, double-duty two-sided indices, and three subdials give it a sum-of-all-tool-watches look. This is matched with sharp lugs and a unique bracelet designed with five link-rows, almost like a flattened, simplified beads-of-rice bracelet, for a touch of industrialism
And since this is a PRC watch, this chrono boasts topnotch specs, including 200 meters of water resistance, a super accurate quartz movement, and a scratch-resistant sapphire.
Despite being a brawny sport watch, this guy gets extra credit for its reasonable 39.8mm case size.
Tissot Le Locle T0064071605300 Dress Watch
A truly stately timepiece, the Tissot Le Locle Powermatic 80 is adorned with all-Roman indices, clearly pointed at by graceful feuille hands. Even the second hand has a mini-leaf counterweight.
The watch face has the signature Le Locle diamond-plated steel center dial, which is a remarkable repurposing of a usually-industrial motif. It also ups the legibility factor creating a smooth-background track for the indices, essentially highlighting them.
This 39mm dress watch is powered by the brand’s famous Powermatic 80, named so thanks to its sizable power reserve. The caseback is decoratively embossed, which provides an exquisite window for the elegantly pearled movement itself.
And finally, with a height of less than 10mm, this 100-meter water resistant timepiece sits comfortably on most, if not all, wrist sizes.
Tissot T0384301103700 T-one Automatic
The Tissot T0384301103700 T-one flaunts an achievement capable only by skilled watch designers: It’s an undeniably unique look, without cheaply relying on overly weird or flashy elements.
The playful but understated face is illustrative, with hard lines throughout, including the stark outer track, and the separation between the brushed index track and the center dial. It has an Art Deco vibe, but without all of the sharp edges.
The crown looks like a smoothed-out onion crown, with a hard line at its break and spaced out divots to make it easy to grab. The result is a simplified gem-like aesthetic, almost like a physical manifestation of the shadow of a diamond.
It’s powered by a Swiss ETA automatic, which is why the second hand sweep is so satisfyingly smooth.
Moreover, this watch perfectly straddles casual and dressy, in no small part due to its versatile 38.5mm case size.
FAQs About Tissot Watches
Here are answers to some commonly asked questions about Tissot watches.
Are Tissot Watches Good Quality?
In general, yes. They offer a wide range of price points, and, of course, their more luxurious $1000-and-up models are of higher quality than their budget offerings. And while their cheaper models aren’t as bang-for-buck as, say, a Seiko at the same price point, Tissot watches are fairly-priced in every cost bracket.
Is Tissot Worth Buying?
Yes, Tissot watches offer a range of well-made models at all price points, styles, and movements.
Is Tissot Considered a Luxury Watch?
Tissot is the kind of brand that’s often described as “affordable luxury.” Some models are more expensive than others, so predictably, their $200 quartz models wouldn’t be considered luxury.
However, you can find a high-quality Swiss-made, automatic Tissot watch in the $1000 range which, buzzwords aside, is objectively an example of affordable luxury.
Is Tissot a Good Entry-level Watch?
Yes. Many Tissot watches come in entry-level prices. If you want a general entry-level watch, you can find a well-made, Swiss-made, well-polished, sapphire-clad quartz for an easy $200 in Tissot’s range.
If you want an entry-level luxury timepiece, as mentioned, you can easily find one anywhere between $600-$1000, with a good movement and a high level of finishing.
Conclusion
Everyone should experience Swiss watches at some point on their watch collecting journey, and Tissot is a great entry point. Their rich history, devotion to quality, and affordability have made them one of the most successful brands in the world, and we can’t recommend them enough.
Questions? Comments? Leave them below!
Dan says
I would recommend to avoid the Swissmatic if you’re to planning to keep the watch. Its mechanism is sistem51. While it is a technical wonder and advancement, it cant be serviced and will die in 20 years max.
Albertych says
The list is not complete without the Tissot T039 36 T-Sport V8