NWA: 1951 Tissot

Today, before work, I rushed to the post office to pick up a parcel with a birthday gift from a good friend of mine, a fellow WIS. Inside was...this beauty:

Years ago, at a flea market, I missed the chance to buy a really well-preserved Tissot bumper automatic. Before I bought my Longines Spirit, I was on the lookout for a 1950s Omega Seamaster with a "Fat Lug" case. And here it is, a beautiful amalgamation of the two.

This particular piece was, as per an engraving on the case back, presented in 1951 to a long-time employee of Sulzer AG, a massive engineering holding in business since 1775.

The early 1950s were still the heyday of bumper automatic movements. This one is equipped with the Tissot 28.5-21. The Tissot 28, the original calibre of the family, was a joint venture with Omega, sharing the architecture with Omega cal. 28-10RA. The 28.5-21, though, was way further down the line, so I don't think it shares much - if anything at all - with its contemporaries from Omega. Yeah, some resemblances are present, notably in the layout of the automatic winding works.

Should it be possible, I'll try to have it serviced by the local Swatch Group service centre. Hopefully, without having it sent off to Le Locle, at least of the local SC I know that they won't go to town on unwanted restorations, and won't mess up the original finishing when told not to mess it up. I want this movement working like a charm for long years to come, so it seems like a reasonable place to get that done. Just hoping not to have to pay through my nose for it, though it will more likely than not hurt my wallet a bit.

And there's a lot of well-preserved original finishing here. The watch still has its original crown...

...sharp case chamfers...

...and just look at that dial!

Presumably it was originally silver-ish/off-white, and it aged gracefully, with an evenly distributed gold/sandy patina.

Besides, I guess I'm just a sucker for the pre-1960 Tissot logo.

It's not exactly "Fat Lug Seamaster" grade, the closest point of reference that I can think of in terms of finishing is my Alpina bumper auto in a Taubert Vacuum case:

However, the Tissot definitely looks, feels and wears slightly sleeker than the Alpina. It's 33mm, maybe a hair over that, but thanks to the long and thick lugs, it wears pretty damn close to the 34mm Alpina, if not taking up even more real estate with the lugs alright.

All in all, just a beautiful design in great shape, and a keeper for good.