In its 156-year history, Tissot (pronounced Tee-Soh) has tried innovation in watch design and materials which was much ahead of the times. Its focuses too have ranged from making eco-friendly watches to making watches for the adventure-loving and the athlete. Pradipta K Mohapatra traces the brand’s timeline

If one were to run a poll on the most popular Swiss watch brands in India, four brands will certainly rank right on top. They are Rolex, Omega, Tissot and Rado. On anecdotal evidence of the ranking of popularity, one might consider Omega, Rolex, Tissot and Rado in that order. However if one has to define the brand salience by sheer sales volume; clearly Tissot is the largest selling Swiss watch brand in India. No doubt, Tissot’s pricing starting at Rs 10,000 or so for a basic model being just above Titan’s top end models helps. What also helps Tissot being the top selling brand is the fact that it has the largest retail distribution network among all Swiss brands. In the words of Yasho Saboo, Founder and CEO of Ethos Boutiques (India’s largest Swiss watch retail chain), “These days when people come to buy a Tissot watch, they don’t go from counter to counter to check the best price.” Indians for a long time have learnt to trust Tissot’s price integrity as much as it’s quality integrity. Not surprisingly the company believes that the Tissot brand falls in the category of ‘Democratic Luxury’. I was quite amused to hear of this new brand positioning! What Tissot refers to as democratic luxury; it actually means ‘Affordable luxury’ as is widely understood in the luxury goods industry.
Tissot’s foray into India started a long time ago. In it’s early days Tissot did some serious marketing in Tzarist Russia. In fact in the 1910s, Tissot pocket watches received accreditation from the Russian Tzar as ‘His majesty’s appointment’ which not many Swiss brands shared. Being hugely successful in one monarchy, Tissot naturally turned to the land of Maharajas even before it’s competitors saw opportunity in India. The rest, as they say, is history.

History
Tissot was founded by Charles-Felicien Tissot and his son Charles-Emile who established the Tissot factory in the city of Le Locle. Tissot introduced the first mass-produced pocket watch in 1853. As a mark of it’s vintage, all Tissot watches carry the nomenclature as ‘Tissot 1853′ as an integral part of the brand. If one has to write about the history of innovation, in the early days, Tissot would not exactly feature in the list. The only innovation that is credibly listed for the company is it’s introduction of the first anti-magnetic watch in the world in 1929-30. Having little to show by way technological innovation, Tissot brought significant innovations to watch styling, more particularly to the styling of the dial. Tissot introduced a stone dial (called the Rock watch) followed by dials of various semi precious stones and mother of pearl. Tissot was the first to introduce a full plastic watch before Swatch arrived. (It can very well be speculated that Nicolas Hayek’s introduction of Swatch may have been inspired by Tissot plastic.) The most bizarre material to have been used by a watchmaker is wood (the Wood watch).
By 1930, Tissot ran out of steam and merged the company with Omega. Tissot – Omega watches from this era are much sought after by collectors. Since 1983, Tissot became a member of The Swatch Group, the largest watch producer and distributor in the world.

Sports & Technology
While the Swatch Group was pleased to see the volume sales and distribution network of Tissot (16,000 outlets in the world) they remained unimpressed with the brand positioning. Almost instinctively they chose sports. Tissot had been associated with the Davis Cup in 1957 and skiing in Switzerland in 1938 apart from cycling and ice hockey. The Swatch Group smartly decided to be associated with motor sports. They have been the official timekeeper of the MotoGP since 2001. This led to the introduction of MotoGP brand and it’s hugely popular limited edition variants. Collectors around the world were excited to see Tissot T-Race MotoGP limited edition 2008. It’s yellow rubber strap, dial of the same color and presentation inside a stylish MotoGP helmet box with interchangeable medallions was a treat for watch lovers. MotoGP’s huge success encouraged Tissot to introduce T-Wave-Ice-T for skiing and other brands such as Flower Power – V8, Heritage-T-Lord and a whole lot of other sports brands.
Tissot really arrived in the world of technology with it’s T-Touch. In an exclusive interview Nicolas Hayek had claimed that one part of the wrist watch’s future lies in technology. You remain wonder struck when you see T-Touch. T-Touch has a touch sensitive sapphire crystal that simply activates the crystal with a touch in seven different areas to display spectacular features. With the touch of a finger, T-Touch becomes a Compass, a Thermometer, a Barometer, an Altimeter, a Chronograph and an Alarm. It also displays dual time zones with analog and digital. If you haven’t experienced a T-Touch, you haven’t seen the future of Quartz technology. Never mind Tissot’s huge popularity as a sports and technology brand, there are many diehards like yours truly who will still buy a classic Tissot to wear to office. There are many like me in the world and Tissot obliges us with it’s range of classic watches!

Deepika Padukone
It is not surprising that Tissot’s list of brand ambassadors include celebrated sports icons such as American MotoGP rider Nicky Hayden, English footballer Michael Owen, and Thomas Luthi the Swiss Motorcycle rider. When it came to India, Tissot wanted to choose the face of a new generation. And they have chosen Deepika Padukone as the ‘Face of Tissot’ around the world. The fact that Nicholas II, Elvis Presley and Nelson Mandela wore Tissot watches helps! Dig into a Tissot and you would have bought the largest selling Swiss watch brand in India. The good news is – it also won’t make a hole in your pocket!
(The author is an amateur historian of events, objects and places.)