Tissot is a Swiss watch manufacturer of the Swatch Group and is located in Le Locle in the canton of Neuchatel. Charles Félicien Tissot founded with his son Charles-Emile in 1853 in Le Locle a workshop, where they produced pocket watches with supplied parts. Charles-Emile travelled frequently to Russia and to the United States to sell their products. His son Charles took over the company in 1883 and continued the sales tours. At the instigation of Charles’s son Paul who now also belonged to the company, one began to manufacture wristwatches in 1915. In 1920 one extended the activity to an own movements production.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Tissot made a name with a series of fashionable wristwatches with cases made of unusual materials such as granite and wood.
Tissot introduced the first mass-produced pocket watch as well as the first pocket watch with two time zones in 1853 and the first anti-magnetic watch in 1929–30. Charles-Emile Tissot left for Russia in 1858 and succeeded in selling their Savon Nette pocket watches across the Russian Empire.
Tissot has been a member of The Swatch Group Ltd. since 1983, the largest watch producer and distributor in the world. Still based in Le Locle, Switzerland and marketed in 160 countries around the world. Tissot watches are currently classified by Swatch Group as “mid-range market” products.
Tissot has been the Official Timekeeper for a multitude of major sports, including MotoGP, Ice Hockey, Cycling, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) the Fencing World Championships, the NBA and others, for many years, and being the Official Timekeeper means that Tissot has the privilege and the responsibility of actually timing each of these sports.
For early events, handheld stopwatches were sufficient to provide official timings. Today Tissot works with various sporting bodies to develop systems to produce ever more accurate timings for specific events. In competitive cycling, for instance, sensors are placed on the bikes and track which are then linked by computers to provide track timings and performance data.
Tissot introduced its first tactile watch, with “T-Touch,” technology in 1999; watches containing this technology have touch-sensitive sapphire crystals to control various functions like compasses, barometer, altimeter and thermometer. The latest models in the T-Touch series. The T-Touch Expert Solar and T-Touch Lady Solar holds 25 functions. With the growing T-Touch family, classically innovative pieces like the T-Complication Squelette, and classic understated dress watches like the Le Locle Automatic, the future of Tissot looks to be at least as long and storied as its 161 year past.
One of the distinguished watch brands that have Swisness in its every make. The brand is famous for its signature line, “Innovators by Tradition”. Tissot currently has outlets in more than 160 countries and is also a member of the Swatch Group.
