'78 Tissot F1/ Seastar Quartz cal.2031

I have recently revived one of my dad's old watches found clattering around in a drawer with a dead battery which he says is from when he was in his 20's. It hasn't run in probably at least 20 years.

When discovering the quirky movement and how it worked and the reasoning behind it, I thought someone here might find my ramblings interesting, especially those who love a PRX and are interested in a bit of Tissot heritage. I didn't do a proper review of it because I think reviews should be for things a bit more available and special, things that people might be interested in, which this isn't particularly.

Tissot has a long history of sponsoring motorsport, starting in the late 50's when driver Harry Zweifel wrote to Tissot saying he used their timepieces to time his laps during every race.

Tissot listened and started to invest in the idea of watches built for the harsh environments and G forces associated with racing.

This was followed in the late 60's by the Tissot PR516; PR standing for 'Particularly Robust' (no joke) and was used by many drivers in various race divisions. Tissot also pioneered with the design of the bracelet on the PR516, putting holes in it reminiscent of a car steering wheel, which was also for good wrist ventilation, the design language that has now become synonymous with rally style watch straps across many brands.

Throughout the 70's Tissot was heavily involved in motorsport; sponsoring the Alpine rally team and later the Renault Alpine Formula One and Le Mans teams as well as having some involvement with Lotus F1 in 1980.

The Tissot F1 range was produced during this time and comprised of a variety of watches including a square, a Casio-esque digital and this more conventionally shaped model.

All mechanical quartz models in the range were fitted with Tissot's own in house 2030/2031 quartz movements also found in their Seastar range at the time.

The Movement

Now, the interesting bit...

The 2031 movement in this watch is a 4 jewel quartz, the unusual feature being that it has an electric clutch on the minute hand which affects the way it is set; this watch was issued to members of the teams and pit crew who were flying all over the world for the races, and therefore a key requirement was an ease of advancing the hours back and forth for differing timezones.

Therefore in this watch, pulling the crown out sets the hour hand and absolutely nothing else.

It is because of this that a lot of other examples have been thrown away over the years, as many who came across them assumed the lack of minute hand response when pulling the crown meant that the movement was broken, and as the watch was inexpensive and impractical to repair, it went in the bin.

So how do you set the time?

Well, as I said, pulling the crown out adjusts the hours, the hour hand jumps back and forth rapidly with very little crown twisting, whilst the minute hand stays perfectly still, meaning whole days can be wound through very quickly, setting the minutes however, is more complex...

To set the minutes, one must first press in the crown and hold it for 5 seconds, at which point the seconds hand will freeze. This process of manhandling the crown for someone used to regular quartz and mechanical watches feels like a cardinal sin!

After reciting your 5 Mississippi's or hippopotamus's (your choice) you then must release the crown and then immediately depress and hold it again, FIRMLY. At this time, the minute hand will begin to slowly whirr around, you then must hold the crown in until you reach the desired time, at which point you release it.

Now to say this process is tricky is an understatement, the crown is very small, very hard and octagonal in shape, no thought has been put into making it comfortable whatsoever. If you are unfortunate enough to need to advance the minutes hand around the majority of the dial, that will require you to pinch the watch case with a vicious death grip for over a minute, and let me tell you, that minute feels like an eternity! It's quite normal to be wincing with pain during this process and to have the Tissot 'T' on the crown branded into the tip of your thumb when you've finished.

Now, why, you might ask, would Tissot make changing the minutes such an absolute royal pain in the arse? Well, I don't think anybody really knows, but rumour has it that Tissot said that the movement is so accurate, once it's set you shouldn't really ever need to!

To be fair to Tissot, it is a good movement, the seconds hand hits every single marker every single time, so those with alignment OCD might enjoy it. The accuracy is also very good, with very little deviation.

The watch itself is typical 70's fair, small case dimensions and the bracelet feels like it's made of old bean cans, very jangly and delicate. The watch face is very minimal; you can see the design language and heritage of the modern PRX shining through.

The crystal is round mineral glass set in an octagonal matte black bezel, both have scratches from its 40 something years of life. The watch is completely lume free.

This particular example appears to be an unusual crossover in production, it has the correct case, indices and movement for an F1, however the dial is slightly different and says 'Seastar' which was another one of Tissots watch ranges (as it still is)

I don't know of any other watch movements like this, and despite the fact that it's horrible to set, the little foibles are what makes these little vintage watches interesting.

Has anyone else got any unique and/or interesting movements?

Cheers!