Vintage automatic swiss watch, Tissot VisoDate SeaStar PR 516, ca. 1965.

Tissot has a sterling history of producing high-quality and innovative watches that spans more than 170 years. Based in the town of Le Locle, in the Swiss Jura Mountains, the Swiss luxury brand was founded by the father-and-son team of Charles-Félicien Tissot and Charles-Émile Tissot in 1853. 

In the early days, Tissot focused on producing pocket watches with high-precision movements, many of which were ornately decorated and popular with women, including French actress Sarah Bernhardt and, later, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium and famed singer Carmen Miranda. Its watches housed in domed tonneau cases, such as the Porto of the 1910s — a distinctive Art Nouveau design — foreshadowed the venturesome forms of Art Deco jewelry and landed well ahead of the shaped watch trend, and its anti-magnetic watch beat the world’s best known brands to the punch, too.

While Vacheron Constantin is credited with developing early technology for anti-magnetic timepieces — which protected movements from disruptive magnetic fields — it was Tissot that introduced the Antimagnétique, which is believed to be the world’s first anti-magnetic wristwatch. 

The sleek Art Deco-styled accessory made its way to market in 1930 — the same year that saw Tissot merging with Omega to establish the Swiss Society for the Horology Industry — decades before Rolex debuted its Milgauss, which was designed specifically for scientists toiling in the immediate vicinity of strong magnetic fields. IWC, Omega and Jaeger-LeCoultre would introduce their own antimagnetic timepieces in the years that followed, but Tissot was ahead of the game. In keeping with its slogan “Innovators by Tradition,” Tissot introduced the Navigator in 1951, a mass-produced self-winding watch that displayed 24 time zones on its sophisticated oversized dial.

In 1983, Tissot became part of the Swatch Group. Since then, Tissot’s enduring commitment to quality and style has led to even more milestones — the Tissot T-Touch, the first watch to incorporate touch-screen technology, debuted in 1999. In 2011, Tissot took first prize in the International Timing Competition with the Tissot Le Locle watch, which scored a 764 out of 1,000 for accuracy — leaving the next competitor in the dust with 488 points. 

Tissot watches continue to be status symbols and have been embraced by the likes of George Clooney and Justin Bieber as well as Angelina Jolie, who sported Tissot watches in both Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Tomb Raiders. 

Find vintage Tissot wristwatches and pocket watches on 1stDibs.