The globe on your wrist!

“She’s almost ready” yells one of the ground crew. You figure it’s about time you made a move, taking a last gulp of coffee you move on from a small table in the hangar.
Walking out you are thinking about what lays ahead of you, crossing the Atlantic in record breaking time! Nobody has been able to break the record in years and you know that with your hotted up Lockheed Electra you could be the first in a long time. You share a few words with the ground crew about the plane, they wish you luck and you climb into the cockpit.
Once in you pull back the sleeve of your leather flying jacket to check your starting time. For luck you have your tissot navigator worldtime on, it’s a good luck charm and you don’t fly without it. Your eyes are transfixed on the blued dauphine hand set, the time zones staring back at you begging to have the record broken across each. Hhhmmmm, you hear someone clear their throat, you snap out of your daydream.
You realise that for the past 10 mins, you have been sitting in the boardroom staring at your Tissot navigator worldtime 160th…..
Oh well, at least the watch looks great.

The tissot navigator worldtime was released in 1953 as Tissot’s celebration piece. The watch was a serious tool watch with some pedigree. It was used by aviators in aviation through to the end of the 1960s and took on a few different designs in that time.
The watch in question is part of Tissot’s heritage range and was created to not only flatter the original navigators but to celebrate once again a tissot milestone, this time of 160 years.

Retaining most of the original design, Tissot released the 160th in a 43mm case. The originals were 36mm. The case specs are all over the web so I won’t go into too much nerdy details, at least not too much.
The original watch sported a tissot bumper automatic, true to history this model is also carrying a automatic movement as well. This time it is an eta 2893-3 and the case has a display back so tissot can show off the gold tone rotor with cote de Geneve. The movement is hackable and is COSC chronometer rated, Very accurate.

The dial is unlike any other worldtimer out there. Each timezone represented by a capital city on the inner disc in a blue font with a splash of red for the international date line reference.
The next step out is the ring sporting the 24hr markers to register the times for each zone as the watch is running.
The bezel is for local time and is high polished with black filled markers. It is surprisingly easy to read and getting used to it comes fast. The dial also have lume plots at the 12,3,6 and 9 with a small strip of lume on the handset. The bottom of the dial has the TswissT marker as to depict tritium. This is only for a nod to history and in-fact is standard luminous. Nice touch though.

So let’s get into the nots so great. For starters 43mm is not for everyone, small wrists need not apply. The crown looks a little out of place, it’s a small flat thing on the side almost an afterthought.
The original from 1953 had a top hat style crown. The third complaint is the lack of dressing on the movement. I know swatch group can’t have longines and tissot competing but the longines of this level has the same rotor but perlage on each bridge. With a display back and this being such a tribute to the brand itself, I did expect a little more.

All in all it’s such a lovely watch staying mostly true to its vintage styling. What worldtime can you get with this history and quality for its price point?
Not many and none that look as good as the Tissot that lets you have “the globe on your wrist”!

Pros

– It’s looks, true to its vintage looks

-A true world time that you can get for $1400 AUD !!!!! {whatever this is in a real currency; the editor}

-Dressy but good for casual wear as well

Cons

-43mm …… yep it’s a big boi

-Tiny little crown on the side of a behemoth case

-Not as much movement dressing as you would expect. Come on tissot.

Quality
85

Style
90

Value
90

Wearability
75