Tissot SA () is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

watchmaker. The company was founded in Le Locle, Switzerland by Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son, Charles-Émile Tissot, in 1853. After several mergers and name changes, the group which Tissot SA belonged to was renamed the Swatch Group in 1998. Tissot is not associated with

Mathey-Tissot Mathey-Tissot is a Swiss watch maker of prestige watches, originally established in 1886 by Edmond Mathey-Tissot at Les Ponts-de-Martel in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. Mathey-Tissot is an independent watchmaker, headquarter is loca ...

, another Swiss watchmaking firm.

History

Independent company

Tissot was founded in 1853 by Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son Charles-Émile Tissot in the Swiss city of Le Locle, in the

Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...

canton of the

Jura Mountains The Jura Mountains ( , , , ; french: Massif du Jura; german: Juragebirge; it, Massiccio del Giura, rm, Montagnas da Jura) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the Frenc ...

area. The father and son team worked as a casemaker (Charles-Félicien Tissot) and watchmaker (Charles-Emile). His son having expressed an interest in watchmaking from a young age. The two turned their house at the time into a small 'factory'. Charles-Emile Tissot left for Russia in 1858 and succeeded in selling their savonnette pocket watches across the Russian Empire. In 2021, the company is marketin
Le Locle Powermatic 80
which has a watch face designed to mimic the clock tower in its founding city of Le Locle.

Omega, SSIH, ASUAG, SMH

Tissot merged with watch company Omega SA in 1930, forming SSIH (Société Suisse pour l'Industrie Horlogère), and Tissot-Omega watches from this era are sought after by collectors. Tissot's first engagement as an official timekeeper was in 1938 where they timed a series of ski races in Villars-sur-Ollon, near the company's home town in the Jura mountains. Tissot was used for timing downhill skiing in Switzerland in 1938, and for the Davis Cup in 1957. SSIH-ASUAG was formed in 1983 (Allgemeine Schweizerische Uhrenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft, ASUAG, was a holding company supplying the watch industry), then SMH (Société Suisse de Microélectronique et d’horlogerie; 1983–1985).

Swatch subsidiary

SMH took the name of ''the Swatch Group'' in 1998. Tissot SA remained in Le Locle, Switzerland, and marketed in 160 countries. Tissot watches are classified by the Swatch Group as "mid-range market" products. Tissot is an official timekeeper for the world championships in cycling, motorcycling, fencing and ice hockey, etc. Tissot was a sponsor for the Formula One car-racing teams Lotus, Renault, and Sauber. In the past handheld stopwatches were sufficient to provide official timings; in more recent times manufacturers and sporting bodies together develop more accurate systems for specific events. In competitive cycling, for instance, sensors are placed on the bikes and track, and linked by computers to provide track timings and performance data.

Motto and slogan

The company motto/slogan of Tissot is "Innovators by Tradition" and its mission statement is "gold value at silver price".

Watch manufacturing

Notable inventions

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. Tissot was also one of the first companies to manufacture an antimagnetic wristwatch in the early 1930s. The Tissot company was also the first to make watches out of plastic (Idea 2001 in 1971), stone (the Alpine granite

RockWatch The RockWatch or Rock Watch was a trademarked brand of wristwatch by Tissot with a case essentially made of stone, initially alpine granite from the Grisons, Ticino, and Valais cantons of Switzerland. It was designed by Robert Mazlo and firs ...

in 1985), mother of pearl (the Pearl watch in 1987), and wood (the Wood watch in 1988). 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 including compass, barometer, altimeter and thermometer. The 2014 T-Touch Expert Solar and T-Touch Lady Solar had 25 functions.

Gallery

File:Tissot_Couturier_watch_on_hand.jpg, Tissot Couturier File:Tissot Handaufzug, 1958.jpg, Tissot 1958 File:Tissot Twotimer.jpg, Tissot Twotimer, 1990 File:Tissot PRC 200 T17.1.586.52.jpg, Tissot PRC 200 (T17.1.586.52) File:Tissot pocket watch, open - 20110212.jpg, Tissot pocket watch, open

Marketing

Tissot has partnered with a wide range of celebrities from basketball players, actors, cricket players, to MotoGP racers to be their brand ambassadors. Tissot brand ambassadors have included: Tony Parker, Liu Yi Fei, Virat Kohli, Deepika Padukone, Huang Xiaoming, Jorge Lorenzo,

Thomas Lüthi Thomas Lüthi (born 6 September 1986) is a Swiss sporting director at Prüstel GP, and former Grand Prix motorcycle racer. He spent 19 years in Grand Prix world championships, becoming one of only six riders to reach 300 race starts, spending m ...

, Neha Kakkar, Marc Márquez and

Rana Daggubati Ramanaidu "Rana" Daggubati (; born 14 December 1984) is an Indian actor and producer known primarily for his work in Telugu language films, in addition to Hindi and Tamil languages. Rana is described as one of the few actors in India who were ...

Clientele

Tissot watches have been worn by the

Princess of Wales Princess of Wales (Welsh: ''Tywysoges Cymru'') is a courtesy title used since the 14th century by the wife of the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. The current title-holder is Catherine (née Middleton). The title was firs ...

Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...

, singer Carmen Miranda, Grace Kelly, Elvis Presley, and

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

In popular culture

James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality h ...

wore a Tissot watch in '' Rear Window''. T-Touch watches have been worn by Angelina Jolie in the movies '' Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life'' and '' Mr. & Mrs. Smith''. Simon Pegg wore a T-Touch in '' Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation''.

Sponsorships

Tissot has been the official timekeeper responsible for timing in several sports including MotoGP, ice hockey, cycling, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) the Fencing World Championships, the Women's National Basketball Association, for many years. In basketball it has sponsored the Swiss national team, the Chinese Basketball Association, the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

and other related events, teams, and organizations. On November 20, 2019, it was announced that Tissot would serve as the official timekeeper and results service for the

2022 World Games The 2022 World Games were an international multi-sport event held from July 7 to 17, 2022, in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. They were the 11th World Games, a multi-sport event featuring disciplines of Olympic sports and other competitions ...

.Tissot Official Timekeeper of The World Games 2021
The World Games, Retrieved 16 July 2022

References

External links

* {{Authority control The Swatch Group 1853 establishments in Switzerland Swiss companies established in 1853 Manufacturing companies established in 1853 Le Locle Swiss watch brands Watch manufacturing companies of Switzerland Companies based in the canton of Neuchâtel