TissotSA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker. The company was founded in Le Locle, Switzerland by Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son, Charles-Émile Tissot, in 1853. Since 1983, Tissot SA has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Swatch Group. 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 ofLe Locle, in the Neuchâtel area of the Jura Mountains. Charles-Emile Tissot left for Russia in 1858 and succeeded in selling their savonnette pocket watches across the Russian Empire. 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. 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. 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.
Motto and slogan
The company motto/slogan of Tissot is "Innovators by Tradition".
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. The Tissot company was also the first to make watches out of plastic, stone, mother of pearl, and wood. 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.
Gallery
Environmental rating
In December 2018, World Wide Fund for Nature released an official report giving environmental ratings for 15 major watch manufacturers and jewelers in Switzerland. 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. 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. The situation is especially serious in the developing countries which are top producers of gold, including China, Russia and South Africa. It is estimated that the watch and jewelry sector uses over 50% of world's annual gold production, 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.
