Tissot Watches: The last time we had a Tissot in for review (the Chrono XL NBA Edition), it was not a watch I came away with a favorable impression of. Well, when you’re a brand as large as Tissot, you’ve got a deep bench, and they came back with some other options for the graduation / Father’s Day gift giving cycle. Out of the options they were showcasing, we opted to get a loaner in of the Tissot Tradition 5.5.
Tissot Tradition 5.5 Quartz
We here at WWR are not anti-quartz at all. Quite to the contrary – there are plenty of use cases where they are the right choice, and can often bring capabilities to the table that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive with a mechanical watch. In the case of the Tissot Tradition 5.5, it allows for a super-slim case. All told, it’s a very svelte 5.15mm thick. Set that off against the 39mm diameter, it has an extremely low visual profile. When this is your starting look, you’re very much in the realm of a dressier piece.
Tissot Tradition 5.5 Dial and Strap
For the Tissot Tradition 5.5, we opted for the white dial for our loaner, which comes with black numerals/indices on the dial, and then a pair of silver hands spinning away under the sapphire crystal. To make it slightly less dressy, Tissot paired this version with a dark brown leather strap (on a butterfly clasp). I might have opted for a black strap to slip into the 18mm lugs – or, say, a deep blue – but the dark brown works as well. This gives the Tissot Tradition 5.5 a good start for it’s intended use case.
Lightweight
Which, if you think about this being gifted to a recent graduate, or for a father, you’re probably gifting them a watch that they may not want to wear every day, but instead pull it out for special events. For this, the dressier look works, and the quartz movement of course keeps it moving along with accuracy in between those wears. For my time wearing the watch, it was a capable and rather lightweight companion. This is very much the sort of watch that works for, say, the office or weddings, keeping a nice slim profile to slide out from under a cuff with ease.
Price
If you’re looking to gift the Tissot Tradition 5.5 – or perhaps just get one for yourself – the version on the leather strap (there are different dial colors and case tones) runs a quite-affordable $375, or you could opt for a bracelet version for $425. That bracelet option might be more for a watch that is intended for more regular, daily, wear, while the leather strap I think fits quite well for the intermittent wearing. At the end of the day, the Tissot Tradition 5.5 is a fairly simple two-hander with classic dress watch looks, all wrapped into an impressively small case topped with sapphire. AKA, all the makings of a solid dress-watch option. And, hey, that casebook looks ready for some commemorative engraving! us.tissotshop.com
Review Summary
- Brand & Model: Tissot Tradition 5.5
- Price: $375 (on leather) / $425 (on bracelet)
- Who’s it for? You are looking to purchase (for yourself or someone else) an inexpensive dress watch with Swiss provenance
- Would I wear it? Every now and again, sure – which is why the quartz is a bonus here
- What I’d change: Don’t be afraid to mix some color in on the strap, there, Tissot!
- The best thing about it: How crazy thin and light the watch is
Tech Specs from Tissot
- Reference: T063.409.16.018.00
- Origin: Swiss made
- Warranty: 2 Years of Warranty
- Collection: T-Classic
- Gender: GENT
- Case shape: ROUND
- Water resistance: Water-resistant up to a pressure of 3 bar (30 m / 100 ft)
- Case Material: 316L stainless steel case
- Length (mm): 39
- Width (mm): 39
- Lugs (mm): 18
- Thickness (mm): 5.15
- Crystal: Scratch-resistant sapphire crystal
- Dial: color white
- Indeces: roman and indexes
- Movement type: Swiss quartz
- Model ETA E64.031
- Caliber 11 1/2’’’
- Diameter (mm) 25.6
- Jewels 8
- Battery battery type Renata 373
- Energy Quartz
- Dial: HM
- Strap reference T600042814
- Strap details: Leather
- Strap color: Brown
- Buckle: butterfly clasp
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