Discover The Tissot Sideral — The Best Summer Watch For 2023
A few months ago, I visited the Tissot headquarters in Le Locle, Switzerland. I not only went there to have a look at the impressive production site but also to have a peek inside the brand’s archives. It’s a big room with a huge amount of Tissot watches, ranging from the brand’s very early pocket watches to today’s pieces.
The Tissot Sideral Story
When going through the vintage watches with the brand’s heritage manager, we stumbled upon the Tissot Sideral S models. These mechanical watches from the 1970s utilized fiberglass cases in very funky colors. This material was light (four times lighter than steel), unscratchable, and unaffected by temperature changes. Developed and manufactured in Sweden, it was put to use in Switzerland. And the Sideral collection as a whole goes even back earlier to 1969. The Sideral was the first watch ever to be made of fiberglass, a lightweight material that allowed Tissot to produce watch cases in different colors.
A vintage Sideral S on eBay
Tissot even had the original boxes for the Sideral in the archives, featuring the model name printed on the sides. It was hard to believe that Tissot produced those watches over 50 years ago already. In my mind, vibrant and fashionable colors for watch cases are something we’ve only seen in recent years, but the Le Locle watch company was already on it in 1970. As one of the 1970s Tissot ads said, “Let’s get away from Dad’s traditional style of watch!” And that’s exactly what Tissot did with the original Sideral collection and is doing once more with today’s release.
A worthy successor of the Tissot Sideral S
These original Tissot Sideral watches made of fiberglass are not widely known, but vintage enthusiasts do show appreciation for them. You will still be able to find an original Sideral S on sites like eBay, sometimes even with the original box, but finding one in good collector’s condition is not easy.
Forged carbon for the new Tissot Sideral
Now Tissot is paying tribute to the 1970 Sideral S with the new Sideral collection. Instead of fiberglass, Tissot decided to use forged carbon for the new Sideral’s 41mm case. With a lug-to-lug of 46.5mm and a thickness of 14.5mm, you’d normally expect a hefty watch.
However, including the inventive rubber strap, it only weighs 90 grams. Combined with a water resistance rating of 300 meters (~30 bar), the Tissot Sideral is, in my opinion, an extremely suitable watch for the summer!
Rubber straps with a unique fastening system
The new Tissot Sideral comes on a quick-release strap that is very close to the original perforated strap from 1970. It uses an ingenious closing mechanism that allows you to lock the strap’s ends into the perforated holes on both sides. You can also mix and match the rubber straps to change the look of your ultimate summer watch within seconds.
As you can see, the strap does not have a conventional buckle. Rather, it is made of one piece of rubber. And besides the fact that it works perfectly, it also stays put (which was my worry when I first laid my eyes on one).
The forged carbon case has an inner case of stainless steel to keep it robust. All variations have a PVD-treated steel unidirectional bezel with a luminous diving scale. Both sides of the watch have a sapphire crystal, the front one being slightly domed. The case back screws into the case, and the Sideral also has a screw-down crown, ensuring water resistance to 300 meters.
Tissot Sideral S versus the new Sideral
Old versus new Tissot Sideral
Comparing the new Tissot Sideral with the Sideral S shows that the new one is a tad bit bigger (41mm versus 40mm) but also uses forged carbon instead of fiberglass, of course. Technically speaking, the new Sideral is a bit more advanced, and this includes the movement as well.
Inside, we find a Powermatic 80 caliber from the Swatch Group powerhouse ETA. This automatic movement has an antimagnetic Nivachron balance spring and offers a power reserve of at least 80 hours. The new 300m-rated Tissot Sideral is also more water resistant than the original 200m-rated Sideral S.
Powermatic 80
The case back displays the Powermatic 80 movement with the skeletonized Tissot-signed rotor. On the original Sideral S, the fiberglass case back showed the pattern of the inside of the strap. The Sideral from the 1970s used Tissot’s 784-2 and (later) 2481 movement.
Regatta scale
What’s more important for me is that Tissot managed to make the new version resemble the original Sideral S so well. Look at the dial, with its regatta countdown gauge design in green and red.
The printing on the dial changed a little bit, though. There’s no more “Sideral S” text, and instead of “Automatic” at 6 o’clock, Tissot’s designers decided to use “Powermatic 80” in its place.
Some purists might be a bit disappointed by these small changes. I, however, like the fact that there are some recognizable differences. They create a clear distinction between the vintage watch and the modern Sideral while underlining the use of a modern movement.
Purists might opt for the vintage Sideral S anyway, whereas the new Sideral targets those with an appreciation for vintage pieces but who want to be able to wear a watch daily without fearing damage and expensive (or impossible) repairs. The new Tissot Sideral also has a red T-shaped seconds hand, which I think is nicer than the original.
The hour and minute hands look very similar but utilize modern Super-LumiNova instead of tritium. On the dial, you will also find that Tissot has given the regatta countdown scale an application of lume.
There are three variations of the Tissot Sideral watch in blue, yellow, or red. Interestingly enough, the blue version doesn’t only have a blue rubber strap and blue minute track on the dial but also traces of blue in the forged carbon case.
Each watch comes with a matching rubber strap (blue, yellow, or red), but on the Tissot website, you will also be able to order an additional black rubber strap to dress the watch down a bit.
With a retail price of €1,075 / US$995, Tissot has created an incredibly cool summer watch with its new Sideral. Now it’s only a matter of picking the right color!
For more information, visit Tissot online.
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