Founded in 1853 and makers of the first mass-produced pocket watch, Tissot are still based at their Le Locle home in Switzerland.  I wonder what Charles-Felicien Tissot and his son Charles-Emile, who established the factory in the Swiss city would think of their now impressive 150 country coverage?

From its inception the company has been dedicated to taking its innovations of designer watches to foreign destinations for the rich and famous. In 1858, Charles-Emile ventured to Russia and successfully sold Tissot savonnette pocket watches across the huge empire. Tissot now have worldwide recognition and continue to play a leading role in watch making innovation.

In recent times, much of Tissot's notable success has come following a 1985 merger with The Swatch Group, the largest watch producer and distributor worldwide since 1983. Positively, it has made for some of the most leading innovation within the industry and the development of high-tech products, special materials and advanced functionality. Interestingly, it has also allowed for a broader, more versatile range of high-quality designer watches at very attractive prices in comparison with any other Swiss brand.

From a pioneering spirit surrounding the small Jura town of Le Locle came revolutionary touch-screen technology and firsts in designer watches including ones shaped from pearl, rock and wood. One of the brands recent masterpieces is the ‘T-Touch' and new versatile designs also feature thermometers, barometers, compasses and altimeters, which help distinguish them as suitable for all manner of activities.

In 2008 Tissot launched the T-Touch range that revolutionised the array of features and functions available of designer watches built with the quality you expect from a Swiss watch maker. These included functions like 100 meter water resistance and a back light.

In 2009 they added the T-Touch Expert Range which included the Sea-Touch and the T-Touch Expert Pilot. These watches included thermometers, barometers, compasses & touch titanium shock technology in elegant and beautifully crafted wrist watches.

The Tissot PRC200 is planned for launch in 2010. It is a timeless classic designer watch with a screw down back and crown and 200m water resistance. It also features dual date functionality, touch screen technology and will be available from both men and women.

Look out for these classic Tissot Watches as they are sure to make news in both the fashion and Watches industry. Famous people who have worn Tissot watches include Elvis Presley, Grace Kelly, the Dali Lama, Paul Newman & Victor Mature.

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Designer Watches

Horology forums will periodically occasion a thread (and not always generated by a newcomer to the hobby, either) asking what, exactly, makes for designer watches. Is it just the famous label on the watch face? Do designer watches simply come down to brand names? Or should there be more involved – and what?

Thus even seasoned watch collectors wonder amongst themselves every now and then. What if a watch were to include a camera, music player, radio, and cell phone as well? Would it even be a watch at all, though it is worn on the wrist? It is interesting to note that while such watches do exist for sale (and are, indeed, marketed as watches, first and foremost), no famous designer has yet graced such timepieces with their brand name. This fact suggests that so-called designer watches are still, as popular prejudice among horologists would predict, about looks first and foremost, even if not exclusively so. Indeed, there are many much more quirky designs which bear no famous designer label, such as those from manufacturer TokyoFlash, like their Nekura Scramble or their Twelve 5-9. Designer watches tend to look fairly similar, unfortunately. And it makes sense, after all: they are trying to capture as much market share as possible, appealing to all by selling the aura of exclusivity.

Horologists – watch fanatics and collectors – love a watch for its inner mechanism as much as, if not actually more than, for its outer appearance. Watches, for such people, do more than just tell time – they bring intellectual enjoyment of the sort pleasing any connoisseur, except in the case of a timepiece it is necessarily more cerebral. The emotional aspects of owning a particular brand or model of watch is secondary, whereas, for the vast majority of non-horologists that likely make up most of the designer watches market, intellectual considerations are what rank second (a distant second, it might even be sniffed). Indeed, it is of some consternation to some collectors and hobbyists that the world is awash in perfunctory timepieces bearing the cachet of “designer watches.” Yet many other watch fanatics defend this class of watches as being watches all the same, sometimes rivaling, if never actually equaling, the more revered and less famous makes. And where does that leave most of us who do not have thousands – and tens of thousands – to spend on a single watch?

Of course, finances determine everything, and a five hundred dollar Burberry Heritage is just as useful for everyday needs as is a nearly four thousand dollar Breitling Aeromarine Avenger Seawolf Chronograph – not to mention a twenty dollar Timex!

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