In 2024, Tissot released a new version of its Chemin Des Tourelles Skeleton watch. The three debut pieces in this collection are pictured in this article, and I think the Tissot Chemin Des Tourelles Skeleton is worth a close inspection for enthusiasts. Why? Because Tissot does a lot of things well in these watches, particularly at this price point. Building on the base model Chemin Des Tourelles, these share the same case shape and Powermatic 80 movement, but the Chemin Des Tourelles Skeleton adds an interesting open-work execution of the movement, as well as a matching dial display, all for not that much more money.
“Chemin Des Tourelles” is a street in the Swiss city of Le Locle, where Tissot is headquartered. According to Tissot, the company first opened its manufacture on the Chemin Des Tourelles boulevard in 1907, and still occupies the same space today. The Chemin Des Tourelles collection (part of the larger T-Classic timepiece family from Tissot) has more or less always been a classically inspired collection of dressier watches that evoke the long heritage of Swiss-style watchmaking that Tissot is known for. Value for the money has always been part of the equation for this and other Tissot watches, so there is a distinct focus on offering a solid classic experience, as opposed to embarking on design originality. Tissot has other models for that.
It has been nearly a decade since a skeletonized version of the Tissot Chemin Des Tourelles watch has appeared on aBlogtoWatch. It is very interesting to see how the company and industry has shifted in that time. The 2015 Chemin Des Tourelles Squelette was an interesting watch but rather different from the more recent version. It was not only more contemporary in design, but it was also 3mm larger, featured a very different style of dial skeletonization (less so than movement skeletonization), focused on the manually wound UNITAS movement, and was more than twice as expensive. Adjusting for watch industry inflation, that roughly $2,000 model in 2015 would have to be priced around at least $3,000 today. With that said, the 2024 Tissot Chemin Des Tourelles Skeleton watches are all priced under $1,000 USD. Thus, you can see the entire focus on the Chemin Des Tourelles collection has become both more practical and economical, which is a good thing for most Tissot fans.
The standard Tissot Chemin Des Tourelles watches are available in both a 39mm and 42mm wide case size. For now, the Chemin Des Tourelles Skeleton watches are only available in the 39mm wide size, probably for good practical reasons. Given the openness of skeletonized watches, it can look disproportionate if the movement is that much smaller than the case. As you can see here, even in a 39mm wide size there are some margins on the periphery of the dial that Tissot cleverly fills in with a minute and hour marker track. If the entire watch was increased in size to 42mm wide, that would easily ruin the delicate dial proportions and make the skeletonized section of the dial appear too small.
I quite like the 39mm-wide case size for these Chemin Des Tourelles Skeleton models. Each of the pieces is in steel (one with a black PVD coating), 11.2mm thick, and water resistant to 50 meters. Over the dial is a domed and AR-coated sapphire crystal, and another sapphire crystal is used on the caseback for a view of the movement. I like the rounded, polished edges of the case which make it look classier, and also add a vintage style to the overall personality of the watch. The watches have 20mm wide lugs and include either a leather strap (on butterfly-style deployant clasp) or a matching steel metal bracelet. The multi-link steel bracelet is actually original in its design (though it has a familiar look), and I think it strikes a good balance between being cost-effective and interesting-looking (as well as comfortable).
Where Tissot does most of the “correct” things in this watch are in the dial, and how it skeletonizes the movement. I want to start with the hands, which are among the only at this price point I know of to employ true dual contrast finishing. Companies like Vacheron Constantin often do this too, but in luxury watches priced much higher than a Tissot. Most dauphine-style hands (as used here) have a split in the middle and both sides of the hands are given the same finishing – usually a polished surfacing. The problem is that all-polished hands might be pretty, but they aren’t that legible. One interesting solution is to polish one side of the hand and giving the other side a frosted or matte finish to this. This retains the “high-end” look people want in a dressy watch dial, but also markedly enhances legibility because the non-polished half of the hands are more legible. Tissot employs this technique well for the Chemin Des Tourelles Skeleton, as evidenced by the fact that in gold, silver, or black tones, all of these hour and minute hands are legible. Without this small detail, the dials could have easily been much more difficult to read, a common issue with skeleton-dial watches.
You can also see how color and hour marker style affects the overall personality of these watches. The Chemin Des Tourelles Skeleton with the blue peripheral dial and some Roman numeral hour markers has a really different feeling to the Chemin Des Tourelles Skeleton with the gold/champagne tones and the all baton-style hour markers. If these watches are successful, I fully anticipate Tissot to continue testing new dial styles out for the Chemin Des Tourelles Skeleton collection. There is also the matter of actual movement skeletonization, which Tissot also does well here. This is a complicated area because there are a number of things that are often collectively called “skeletonization,” even though not all skeleton watches tend to use similar names. Here, Tissot actually engages in real movement skeletonization, as opposed to merely an open dial with a view of the movement underneath.
This is also the first time I have seen a skeletonized version of ETA’s popular Powermatic 80 automatic movement, which is popular across multiple Swatch Group brands including Hamilton, Certina, Mido, and Tissot. Skeletonization implies cutting out parts of the movement so that only the skeleton of the architecture is left. Very fancy watches do this by hand, and involve a lot of hand-decoration of angles and surfaces. Some movements are designed from the ground up to be skeletonized, while others begin as more substantial movements that have parts later cut away to yield a skeletonized result. That’s more or less the case here. As I understand it, Tissot uses that standard Powermatic 80 mechanical movement architecture but with newly designed bridges that have open sections. The result is more attractive than I anticipated, and this is probably now my favorite skeletonized movement in the under $1,000 price range.
The Powermatic 80 movement operates at 3Hz and offers a power reserve of 80 hours. ETA achieved this longer power reserve in a relatively small movement (and single barrel) by reducing the operating frequency from 4Hz to 3Hz. With that said, I believe there are plenty of COSC Chronometer-rated versions of the Powermatic 80, meaning that they are engineered to perform as well as most standard 4Hz movements, but with roughly double the power reserve. According to Swatch Group’s ETA, this is primarily done via the use of modern movement construction materials which are less affected by environmental changes and also operate with less friction. Overall, what you have is a very competently performing automatic movement that also manages to be pretty enough to be featured as the centerpiece of a modestly priced skeletonized dial display.
The current Tissot Chemin Des Tourelles Skeleton watch line-up includes the reference T139.836.16.261.00 in polished steel on the strap with the gold tones dial, priced at $895 USD; the reference T139.836.36.441.00 in black-coated steel with the darker-toned dial, price is $930 USD; and the reference T139.836.11.048.00 with the blue dial on the matching steel bracelet (retail price of $975 USD). Learn more at the Tissot watches website.
