Plastic parts in the Tissot Powermatic 80

The Powermatic 80 is different from the traditional ETA 2824 in a few ways.

First of all it does not have an ETAChron type regulator, it is laser regulated at the factory to achieve it’s high accuracy. This thus however not mean it can not be regulated by a watchmaker as it still has regulator screws on the movement.

Secondly it has a silicon escapement. A material also used for this part by higher end brands like Zenith and Omega. This is an improvement over the standard ETA 2824

Yes while it doesn’t use metals for some parts I don’t think this is a cause for concern. Tissot doesn’t normally service the Powermatic 80 from what I’ve heard, they just replace it. Not because the movement is unserviceable but just because it is faster and more cost effective for them.

Personally I wouldn’t worry about the movement and it’s longevity. Certainly wouldn’t say Tissot/Swatch Group is untrustworthy because of these things.

I suspect that it never crossed Tissot's mind to explain what parts are polymer, and what parts are metal in their movements, since 99% of people who buy their watches don't care.

It was explained in a comment on @Max's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAzywe09fE4 that the Powermatic 80 is indeed serviceable.

The Tissot service centre swaps the movement, but not to dispose of it, but to make the service turnaround faster. I've read that it is a common practice at Swatch Service centres even with some Omega watches. The removed movements go back to a separate service facility, to be given an in-depth service, before being sent out to be installed in another watch.

The "Powermatic" is to be seperated in differnet categories.

C07.111 This is used in the lower price range within the Swatch-Group. They use the plastic Escapements. The Balance spring is made of Nivachron. Which is also Antimagnetic (not as much as Silicon I guess but good anyway). This is what Tissot uses in the PRX.

C07.611 This is used in the higher tiers like in Rado-Watches or some Midos. It has steel parts only and the balance spring is also made of Nivachron.

C07.811 This is based on the chronometré movement of the 2824-2 an uses the Silicon(Silicium) balance spring, which you can find for example in the Tissot Gentleman.

As the "Powermatic" is still a quite young movement (even if it's based on the 2824) I think it is to early to get experiences and lessons learned of the plastic escapement.

I can't say if it's good or bad. But I think Tissot din't made themselfs a favor of puting plastic parts inside as watch enthusiats expecting parts which they associate with "reliability" and movements as "repairability".

But in case of the PRX I think anyway that the Quartz-Version is the better vallue for money watch.

But It would be interesting if a professional watchmaker who has experience with this movement could share his knowledge here.

The Powermatic 80 versions of the Tissot gentleman as well as those in the Mido Ocean Star ranges and everything above is made from metal! The idea of the plastic parts (apart from a lower manufacturing cost) is that they are supposed to be self lubricating, but since this is a relatively new calibre that’s remains to be seen

@BraedenCounts

Omega used a plastic part in the old Moonwatch movements with closed back. They were ugly to look at, so they put the metal one in the open back watches. The plastic part was actually superior.

So plastic parts aren't bad all the time, sometimes it is of course just cost cutting.

Then there is silicon parts. You know why watch brands use them, magnets maybe? Wrong. Dollars. Manufacturing silicon very precisely is fairly simple and once set-up, parts can be made cheaply. They advertise the magnetic thing but that ain't why they're doing it... it's a nice side effect. Silicon fortunately sounds better then plastic but silicon and carbon (the primary constituent of most plastics) have a lot in common, chemically speaking. In a (very loose) sense silicon is just premium plastic...

Regarding disposable watches it's a sad reality that most watches under 1000$ aren't really meant to be serviced in the traditional sense. Skilled labour has become too expensive so it's replace and reassemble as efficiently as possible. One could say the movements are re-furbished but re-cycled might be just as appropriate. Buying a mechanical watch for it's serviceability down the line these days means spending quite a bit of money... I don't like it wither but it is what it is.

A nothing burger...if you like the watch, buy it and enjoy it.

As for "replacing the whole movement", it may just be cheaper to do so.

I have a 10 year old Tissot Courturier with the ETA 2834-2 movement (one with the day-date). It cost me $250 to service it and another $50 for a new strap from Tissot. The service was pretty cheap because my watch maker is very familiar with the ETA 2834-2 movement. At the same time, the exact same watch with the new Powermatic 80 movement was selling for $300 on sale. Financially, it made no sense to service my watch when I could have just bought a brand new one.

If I didn't have a sentimental attachment to my watch, I wouldn't have serviced it. I highly doubt I'll service any other "mechanical" watches at the <= $500 price point (e.g. Seagull 1963, Tissot PRX, etc.). Again, unless you have a story attached to the watch.

If you’re not sure about the automatic PRX, simply get the a quartz PRX.

KTM used plastic parts in their Motocross engine/gearbox & I'm sure they get a lot more wear than a watch part. There's many different types of plastics, developed for specific purposes that often perform better than metal.

Point taken but I think it is notable that Tissot only use plastic in the cheapest versions of the Powermatic 80 movement. If plastic really is as good or even a better material than metal, they would surely use it in all the versions. The self-lubricating argument also looks thin as it inherently assumes that the solid plastic is being worn down to produce liquid lubricant, not an issue you have with rubies. As Uhrologe says the Powermatic is a young movement and it seems as if there is not a great deal of evidence out there as to how it will survive long term. The difficulty Tissot have is that there are many other nice watches for sale which do not carry of odium of their movements being made out of potentially inferior materials.

Excellent reply,& I must agree 💯 as someone else previously said it's all about profit unfortunately. Cheers 🥂

Well they put plastic in faces too so that means their disposable people.

While impractically expensive, the escapement parts from the C07.611 could be swapped straight into a PRX? Better yet, why not just swap the movements completely?

I also subscribe to the idea that if the synthetic escapement was actually better, It would also be found in the C07.611 & C07.811 movements (or perhaps manufacturers are testing the waters on the cheaper movement).

With the C07.1XX movements now being found in over 250 different Tissot & Certina watches (as shown on watchbase.com), I have to imagine these questions are going to start coming up more and more frequently.

-

"C07.111 This is used in the lower price range within the Swatch-Group. They use the plastic Escapements. The Balance spring is made of Nivachron. Which is also Antimagnetic (not as much as Silicon I guess but good anyway). This is what Tissot uses in the PRX.

C07.611 This is used in the higher tiers like in Rado-Watches or some Midos. It has steel parts only and the balance spring is also made of Nivachron.

C07.811 This is based on the chronometré movement of the 2824-2 an uses the Silicon(Silicium) balance spring, which you can find for example in the Tissot Gentleman."

- Sourced from @Uhrologe's comment above