Late last month, to little fanfare, Tissot launched a new model called the Everytime Swissmatic. On the surface, the draw might be the simple, almost Bauhaus-inspired case and dial design, but as the moniker “Swissmatic” would suggest, it comes packing a Swiss-made automatic movement. Better still, with a starting price of just under $400, the Swissmatic stands to become a fantastic gateway into mechanical watch ownership.
What’s particularly interesting is how exactly Tissot was able to offer an automatic Swiss watch at such a low price point. The key is the movement itself. As Worn & Wound notes, the movement inside bears a striking resemblance to the Sistem51, an autonomously-produced, 51-piece automatic mechanical movement debuted by Tissot’s sister brand Swatch in 2013. According to Worn & Wound the Sistem51 does, in fact, serve as the base for the Swissmatic movement but features a shorter power reserve (72 hours, versus the Sistem51’s 90 hours), while the components, “are manufactured and assembled by modules and soldered in Boncourt, Switzerland.” [Gear Patrol has reached out to Tissot for more information regarding the differences between the movements.]
The Sistem51 is, no doubt, an innovative movement, but for the last few years was only available in some bolder designs by Swatch. The Swissmatic, by contrast, seems to be a very reserved, everyday watch and could potentially usher in more affordable watches from Swatch Group using other iterations of the Sistem51 movement. Given the lack of compelling mechanical options from Swiss watchmakers at the sub-$400 price point, it could ultimately prove to be a smart move to entice younger watch buyers into the mechanical watch segment.
