Brand
Founded in Le Locle in 1853 and still based there, Tissot is the Swatch Group’s volume Swiss brand. The PRX made it one of the most discussed names under $1,000, and the Powermatic 80 caliber brought an 80-hour power reserve to that price range.
One is an automatic with a domed crystal and a movement you can watch. The other is a 7.07mm Swiss quartz watch with sapphire. They cost about the same and want very different owners.
Quartz wins on accuracy and almost everything else you can measure. These seven mechanical watches each make one case it cannot answer.
Every number on a spec sheet was put there by someone who wants to sell you the watch. Here is what each one actually tells you, and what the missing ones say.
The new quartz chronograph in the modern PRX line costs about a quarter of the automatic version and is noticeably thinner.
For more than a decade the Bambino has been the answer to a simple question about where to start with mechanical watches. The current 38.4mm version gives fewer reasons to look elsewhere.
Citizen’s Tsuyosa offers the integrated-bracelet look for about half the price of a Tissot PRX. The specification sheet shows what that saving costs.
A thousand dollars is where 80-hour reserves, sapphire and 300m divers stop being rare. These are the seven we would spend our own money on, and why.
