For the last few years we have gotten a new Tissot T-Touch style watch each year. Last year it was the Tissot Sailing-Touch, and for 2011 it will be the Racing-Touch (Racing T-Touch). Here is a sneak peak as what Tissot’s new T-Touch model will be all about.
Like the T-Touch Trekking, the Racing-Touch seems to be thinner in size, but I am not sure how wide (UPDATE: 43mm in steel for now). For the first time the T-Touch gets a rotating dive style bezel as opposed to a navigational style bezel. The touch-screen Swiss ETA quartz movement gets a few new features. One of them (not new) is oddly not “racing inspired” being a Tide graph. This seems to replace the “Meteo” function that was a weather predictor using the barometric pressure. If the watch is about track racing, I am not sure how the Tide function fits in, but is nevertheless cool. The Tide function was first seen on the Sailing-Touch watch.
The watch also feature a “Lap” function which seems to supplement the Chronograph (that is now placed at 3 o’clock). The functions seem to be an evolution on those that debuted in the Sailing-Touch, but now meant for racing duty. Notice how the LCD screen part of the dial is totally curved on the bottom – making for a nice look. The dial and case look very handsome. While I still feel the hands are too short, they are very easy to see, and I love the bright orange hands on the top version.
What you see here are one of the men’s models, and the women’s model with a mother-of-pearl dial. I anticipate the cases to be offered in titanium, as well as the pictured steel. If we are lucky we will also see a new metal bracelet in addition to the rubber straps (UPDATE: there will be a metal bracelet). Another good looking first for this collection is the use of a negative LCD screen for the men’s model that is black with lighter text. It looks really sharp with the black colored dial. Water resistance is said to be 100 meters – a good sign for those worried about the water resistance issue that plagued early Tissot T-Touch models. Look out for more information on the Tissot Racing-Touch watch in March 2011.