In 1965, Tissot launched its seminal PR 516 timepiece, impressed by the racetrack, its perforated bracelet mimicking the steering wheels of that period. With a performance-driven aesthetic, the watch was sporty, trendy and sought-after, even gracing the wrists of movie stars like Roger Moore. By 1968, the PR 516 had developed right into a chronograph and has since remained a mainstay in Tissot’s portfolio, with quite a few iterations over time.
However that yr additionally marked the debut of one other timepiece that deserves a spot within the model’s historical past: the Tissot Stylist, a watch that had lengthy been forgotten — till in the present day. At the moment, the sentiment of the Nineteen Sixties favoured daring, expressive design. Consider the Rolex King Midas or the Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse.
The Nineteen Sixties had been a decade of contrasts. Whereas activism, the Chilly Conflict, the Vietnam Conflict and fears of communism dominated headlines, design was thriving. A counterculture pushed by freedom, rebel and youth was difficult conventions, particularly in trend and design.
The watches produced throughout that period had been unorthodox, uniquely formed, audacious and enjoyable, and it’s no shock that they nonetheless possess a permanent attraction, fascinating in the present day’s collectors. This is the reason we had been excited when Tissot revived the Stylist below its Heritage assortment, a line that continues to breathe new life into the model’s most iconic items.
A Transient Historical past
Whereas Tissot in the present day is commonly seen as an entry-point model for youthful shoppers, the Heritage assortment serves as a reminder of the maison’s long-standing contribution to Swiss watchmaking, courting again to 1853.
Tissot was first began by father-and-son duo Charles-Félicien and Charles-Émile Tissot as a comptoir, assembling watches from the assorted part-makers from throughout the area. Again then, watches had been constructed piecemeal by completely different specialists, and assembled by these comptoirs. Whereas its watches had been offered in Switzerland, it discovered a thriving market within the Russian Empire, and it additionally acquired quite a few awards for its improvements.
By the Twenties, when Russia was closed off to worldwide commerce, Tissot needed to pivot. It grew from energy to energy, turning into one of many key gamers in Swiss watchmaking of that interval. It innovated and launched many firsts, from the 1971 Tissot Astrolon, also referred to as the IDEA 2001, which was the world’s first plastic mechanical watch, to the 1985 RockWatch, that was manufactured from Granite from the Alps.
Its Heritage line has been seminal in celebrating its deep, storied historical past: In recent times, we’ve seen the return of the elongated “Banana” watch from 1916, with its outsized numerals and Artwork Deco sensibility. Chronographs from the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies have additionally been central to this revival, balancing historic constancy with modern-day relevance.
The Stylist, Reborn
This brings us to the Stylist, which was re-released in 2024. First launched in 1965, it was constructed to be produced at scale—a enjoyable and trendy timepiece, concentrating on a youthful viewers with its reasonably priced price ticket.
We have to reiterate that this was pre-quartz disaster, when the watch trade was nonetheless producing mechanical watches that had been tough to industrialise on a scale of affordability. This makes the Stylist fairly the anomaly for its time, proof of Tissot’s knack for studying market calls for and taking daring, inventive dangers. Its tagline, “Innovators by Custom”, is clearly removed from hyperbole.
The watch got here in quite a lot of colors and stood out for its ombré dials. It featured a tonneau-shaped case and a manually wound motion. Although archival particulars are restricted, the Stylist seems to have been produced nicely into the Nineteen Seventies. We’d make the daring assumption that the quartz disaster in all probability pressured Tissot to recalibrate and streamline its watch collections, and the Stylist was one of many casualties of that interval.
In 2024, the Swiss watchmaker relaunched the watch below its Heritage assortment. Priced at USD 370, it now comes outfitted with a quartz motion, retaining the timepiece svelte at 7mm and measuring 32 x 32mm. The cushion-shaped case feels very a lot of the second, with its pared-back aesthetic, brushed case, ombré dials, and protruding lugs.
It’s presently obtainable in two references, each of which supply differing kinds. The primary is a stainless model with a blue fume dial, which means that the color darkens in the direction of the sides. The dial options silvered Arabic numerals, and paired with a darkish blue strap, it’s the extra trendy of the 2 choices.
The second leans extra classic: a silver-grey dial with golden baton numerals and fingers, paired with a camel strap. The mix of silver and gold feels nostalgic and retro, interesting to collectors and classic fans alike.
Whereas the watches of 1965 had been described as youthful, we’d classify these iterations as minimalist and barely extra formal – good, maybe, for that first interview or for a collector looking for a chunk of Tissot’s historical past.
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