From its origins as a small watchmaker nestled in the Swiss mountains in Le Locle, Tissot has grown into a luxury player on the world stage, collaborating with global sports superstars. From recruiting as ambassadors the American basketballer Damian Lillard, the Italian motorcycling sensation Enea Bastianini and the Slovenian cyclist Primoz Roglic, to partnerships with the NBA, MotoGP and the Tour de France as their Official Timekeeper, Tissot has become synonymous with both sport and style.
The brand’s latest endeavour is bringing sports, technology and luxury to the consumer. Its new unisex watch, the T-Touch Connect Sport, has been designed for active individuals who value the outdoors and strive for wellness, and who also appreciate a genuine timepiece on their wrist.
Like its predecessor, the T-Touch Connect Solar, the T-Touch Connect Sport is powered by quartz and is recharged by the sun’s rays. It’s designed for hikers, runners, tennis players, cyclists, yogis — anyone who enjoys being active outdoors and spending time in the sun. In fact, the high-performance solar cells on the watch dial capture light, storing energy in an accumulator that keeps the timepiece running perfectly for months without needing a recharge.
But beyond functioning as a sporting companion, the T-Touch Connect Sport merges craftsmanship and connectivity. In a nod to its contemporaries, the watch features a tactile sapphire glass across its 43-millimetre diameter that is responsive to direct touch. A “Workouts” feature enables users to select from a range of activities, before being shown live stats including distance, speed, heart rate and calorie consumption. A “Stats” feature provides complete analysis with performance graphs and trends, to track the wearer’s progress. There’s even a training zone graph for users to keep an eye on their fitness progression.
The T-Touch Connect Sport continues Tissot’s move towards more innovative and technically advanced timepieces, following the launch of the T-Touch Connect Solar in 2020. But Tissot’s history with communication technology actually goes back to 2004, when it joined forces with Microsoft to design the Tissot High-T with the addition of RDS signal reception. This enabled wearers to get information such as weather forecasts, sports results and news — a project which ultimately preceded the network infrastructure it needed to survive.
But why dwell on the past when the future is here? After all, the timing may now be perfect: Australians love the outdoors and they love watches. The luxury watch market in Australia is projected to grow by 2.93 per cent in the next four years, resulting in a market volume of US$0.55 billion ($AU0.83 billion) in 2028, according to Statista. And smartwatches are just as sought after, with a 2023 Telsyte study estimating that 36 per cent of Australians now own a smartwatch, an increase of 4 per cent year-on-year.
Made with ceramic and titanium with brushed and polished finishing, the T-Touch Connect Sport rolls a little luxury into the smartwatch. Like Lillard, Bastianini and Roglic, its wearers can maintain an active lifestyle while sporting a watch whose high quality ensures it will go the distance.
Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport watches, from $1,610, tissotwatches.com.
