Tissot

Tissot SA (French pronunciation: ​[ti'so]) is a Swiss luxury watchmaker.[1][2] The company was founded in Le Locle, Switzerland by Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son, Charles-Émile Tissot, in 1853.[3] Since 1983, Tissot SA has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Swatch Group.[4]

For other uses, see Tissot (disambiguation).
Tissot SA
Subsidiary
IndustryWatchmaking
Founded1853 (1853)
FoundersCharles-Félicien Tissot
Charles-Emile Tissot
Headquarters
Switzerland
Area served
150 countries
Key people
François Thiébaud (President)
Georges Nicolas Hayek Jr. (Chairman of the Board)
ProductsWatches, timing devices and systems
Revenue€1.0 billion (2017)
Number of employees
250
ParentThe Swatch Group
Websitewww.tissotwatches.com

Tissot is not associated with another Swiss watchmaking firm, Mathey-Tissot.

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 area of the Jura Mountains.[3] Charles-Emile Tissot left for Russia in 1858 and succeeded in selling their savonnette pocket watches across the Russian Empire.[5] Tissot merged with Omega in 1930 and Tissot-Omega watches from this era are sought after by collectors.

Tissot was used for downhill skiing in Switzerland in 1938 and the Davis Cup in 1957. 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 hometown in the Jura mountains.

Swatch subsidiary

Tissot became a subsidiary of the Swiss Swatch Group, the largest watch producer and distributor in the world, in 1983.[4][6] After joining Swatch, Tissot was still based in Le Locle, Switzerland and marketed in 160 countries around the world. Tissot watches are classified by the Swatch Group as "mid-range market" products.[7]

Tissot is an official timekeeper for the world championships in cycling, motorcycling, fencing and ice hockey, etc. Tissot was a key sponsor for the Formula One teams Lotus, Renault, and Sauber. For early events, handheld stopwatches were sufficient to provide official timings. Today, Tissot works with various sporting bodies to develop systems to produce 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 ran a worldwide campaign, 'Tissot, This is Your Time' with a new tagline and visuals.[8]

Motto and slogan

The company motto/slogan of Tissot is "Innovators by Tradition".[9][10]

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.[5] The Tissot company was also the first to make watches out of plastic (Idea 2001 in 1971), stone (the Alpine granite RockWatch in 1985), mother of pearl (the Pearl watch in 1987), and wood (the Wood watch in 1988).[3]

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 compass, barometer, altimeter and thermometer. In 2014 the T-Touch Expert Solar and T-Touch Lady Solar had 25 functions.[11]

  • Tissot Couturier
  • Tissot 1958
  • Tissot Twotimer, 1990
  • Tissot PRC 200 (T17.1.586.52)
  • Tissot pocket watch, open krishna

Environmental rating
Top 5 gold producing nations

In December 2018, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released an official report giving environmental ratings for 15 major watch manufacturers and jewelers in Switzerland.[12][13] Tissot, along with 7 other manufacturers including Omega, Rolex and Longines, was given the lowest environmental rating as "Latecomers/Non-transparent", suggesting that the manufacturer has taken very few actions addressing the impact of its manufacturing activities on the environment and climate change.[12][13]

There are concerns over the lack of transparency in manufacturing activities and the sourcing of precious raw materials such as gold, which is a major cause of environmental issues such as pollution, soil degradation and deforestation.[12][13] The situation is especially serious in the developing countries which are top producers of gold, including China, Russia and South Africa.[14][15][16][17] It is estimated that the watch and jewelry sector uses over 50% of world's annual gold production (over 2,000 tons), but in most cases the watch companies are not able to or are unwilling to demonstrate where their raw materials come from and if the material suppliers use eco-friendly sourcing technologies.[12]

Notable patrons and owners
Tissot Le Locle

Brand ambassadors

Tissot has partnered with a wide range of celebrities from basketball players, actors, cricket players, to MotoGP racers to be their brand ambassadors. As of 2018, brand ambassadors include Tony Parker, Liu Yi Fei, Virat Kohli, Deepika Padukone, Huang Xiaoming, Jorge Lorenzo, Thomas Luethi, Marc Márquez and recently Rana Daggubati.[18]

Notable wearers

Tissot watches have been worn by Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Sarah Bernhardt, singer Carmen Miranda, Grace Kelly, Elvis Presley and Nelson Mandela.[5]

James Stewart 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.

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,[19] for many years. It has sponsored the Swiss national team,[20] the Chinese Basketball Association and other basketball-related events, teams, and organizations.

gollark: So if I lie to people and tell them I am an arbitrarily large swarm of bees...?
gollark: Great? That's probably the definition people practically use anyway.
gollark: That seems ridiculously broad. If I go around lying to people (deception) am I an illusion now?
gollark: Except apioforms.
gollark: I mean, depends what you mean by "illusion".

See also

References
  1. "Company Overview of Tissot SA". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  2. "Tissot - Swatch Group". www.swatchgroup.com. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  3. "Tissot: The Brand". Tissot. Archived from the original on 2 December 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  4. "Official Tissot Website - Our Heritage". www.tissotwatches.com. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  5. "Tissot Official Website: History". Tissot. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  6. Bedford, Patrick (2008-07-23). "Buzzle.com: The History Behind Tissot Watches". Archived from the original on 2013-01-02. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  7. "Middle Range watches – (Tissot, Balmain, Certina, Mido, Hamilton, Calvin Klein)". The Swatch Group. Archived from the original on 22 April 2018.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  8. "Official Tissot Website - Magazine". www.tissotwatches.com. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  9. "Official Tissot Website - Our Heritage". www.tissotwatches.com. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  10. Brand, Swiss Watch (2018-03-30). "Tissot — The "Innovator By Tradition"". Swiss Watch Brand. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  11. "The New Tissot T-Touch Expert Solar". Anytime. 14 November 2014.
  12. "Environmental rating and industry report 2018" (PDF). World Wide Fund for Nature. Retrieved 2019-01-19.
  13. swissinfo.ch, S. W. I.; Corporation, a branch of the Swiss Broadcasting. "Swiss luxury watches fail to meet environmental standards". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 2019-01-19.
  14. Vidal, John; Guest, graphic by Pete (2015-08-15). "How developing countries are paying a high price for the global mineral boom". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2019-02-02.
  15. "China needs to get to grips with its gold mining pollution crisis". www.chinadialogue.net. Retrieved 2019-02-02.
  16. Einhorn, Dom (2015-02-09). "Mining in Russia: An economic boost or an environmental threat?". Born2Invest. Retrieved 2019-02-02.
  17. "South Africa has failed to protect locals from gold mine pollution: Harvard report". MINING.com. 2016-10-12. Retrieved 2019-02-02.
  18. "Official Tissot Website - Meet our ambassadors". www.tissotwatches.com. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  19. "NBA, watchmaker Tissot announce multiyear partnership". ESPN. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  20. FIBA EuroBasket 2017, FIBA.com, Retrieved 31 August 2017.
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