The Tissot Powermatic 80 PRX Proves Every Decade Has Its Strong ...

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The Tissot Powermatic 80 PRX Proves Every Decade Has Its Strong Points

The ’70s weren’t all about disco and leisure suits.

Jack Forster June 23, 2021 ADVERTISEMENT

The 1970s may not have been a great decade for producing timeless classics of either fashion or music, though it was admittedly a banner decade for proscribed psychedelics (thank you Sandoz Labs, another great Swiss company). But for watch enthusiasts, it's hard to think of a single period in wristwatch design that looms larger. The 1970s gave us the Quartz Crisis, which led to a series of revolutions not just in electronic watches, but in mechanical watchmaking as well. And it also gave us what has become one of the single most ubiquitous categories of wristwatches – the stainless steel, integrated bracelet sports watch.

The Royal Oak and the Nautilus led the charge and by the end of the decade, they'd inspired legions of new designs. Many of these were quartz watches, like the original Girard Perregaux Laureato. Another was a Tissot quartz watch, launched in 1978, which debuted under the name Seastar and which subsequently became known as the PRX – P for Precision, R for reliability, and the X is a Roman numeral 10, standing for 10 meters' water resistance.

This year, Tissot came out with an updated version of the design from 1978. Wisely, the company didn't change the original much at all. They probably figured (and I agree with them) that if you're going to reboot a straight-from-the-'70s, cheap-and-cheerful trend-following design, you keep it cheap, keep it cheerful, and go into it with an understanding that the Seventies vibe is a feature, not a bug.

When the new PRX came out it was an immediate hit. It tapped into the same vein of nostalgia as Timex's Q. Both the quartz PRX and the Q are affordable to just about anyone, and both make the use of quartz movements, a true-to-the-originals asset. However, while the PRX has a lot of appeal as a sub-$400 quartz watch, there were also, almost immediately, calls for a mechanical version, which is what we have in the Powermatic 80 PRX.

The quartz and mechanical models are virtually indistinguishable. Both have very well-made bracelets and cases, with crisp transitions between brushed and polished surfaces (in fact, the quality is good enough to make you wonder about some of the rhetoric you hear about steel watches costing two to three orders of magnitude more). Both are 40mm in diameter, and the Powermatic 80 version is just a smidge thicker – 10.9mm, vs. 10.4mm. Watch enthusiasts, myself included, pride themselves on being as sensitive to extra tenths of a millimeter as the princess was to the pea but having tried both on, I was hard-pressed to tell the difference from feel alone.

The bigger difference is the price. The quartz version is $375. With the 80-hour Powermatic 80 movement, it's a $650 watch. For the extra $275, you get an entry-level, industrially produced, but very reliable movement (based on the ETA 2824, via the ETA CO7.111) with a three-day-plus power reserve. The Powermatic movement isn't a fine-watchmaking caliber – rather the opposite; it's been designed to be manufactured and set up with a minimum of human intervention, and the fine-regulating system which historically was found on even the cheapest mass-produced mechanical calibers, is absent. Instead, the balance assembly is laser-regulated at the factory. If, however, you prefer a mechanical movement, and your expectations are realistic for the price point, and you like the idea of not worrying about a battery change, the Powermatic 80 PRX is the way to go.

There is a certain appeal to having the watch in quartz – it's a link to the original model from the 1970s and that $275 bucks will cover a lot of batteries. But if you're philosophically opposed to anything quartz, the Powermatic's for you. The movement is more of a technical than artistic achievement but you don't get elves working by candlelight from anyone at this price point, and the style points you earn from the PRX Powermatic 80 more than make up for the absence of Ye Olde Swiss Watchmaking.

The Tissot Powermatic 80 PRX: Case and integrated bracelet, brushed and polished stainless steel, 40mm x 10.9mm, 100 meter water resistance. Movement, Tissot Powermatic 80, self-winding, ball-bearing mounted oscillating weight, running at 21,600 vph. Price, $675. For more information, visit Tissot.

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