This rare Tissot watch isn’t one that you are likely to find at your local Tissot dealer. In their T-Gold collection, this Sculpture Line Skeleton watch comes in a 45mm wide 18k yellow or rose gold case. As a side note, did you know that Tissot makes 18k gold versions of their T-Touch watches? I had no idea, but they do. Yea, not only that but they also can come on gold bracelets – even in platinum too!
Tissot begins with a Swiss ETA Unitas 6497 manually wound mechanical movement. This movement is often chosen when skeletonization is called for as you can really scrape out a lot of its guts to see how it all works. It even helps the basic movement look extremely beautiful when artfully skeletonized and engraved. What Tissot did here is clever. Offer a fully skeletonized watch, but one that is also still legible. The dial of the piece is more or less in tact when it comes to having all of the hour and minute indicators. Coming with a black or silver dial, Tissot uses sporty looking Roman numerals and a full scale of minutes as well as even the 24 hour time. Cut into the dial is an opening that looks like an upside down mushroom. This window does not interfere with telling the time, and gives you a view right into the movement.
Over on the rear of the watch (through the sapphire exhibition window) is a more complete view into the skeletonization and decoration process. In my opinion it is very classy and tasteful and one of Tissot’s top Sculpture Line pieces. It is even suitable as a daily wearer if you don’t mind manually wound watches. One thing that isn’t clear to me is how the crocodile strap fits to the case. In some images it has a more traditional straight end that sits between the lugs close to, but not touching the case. In other images, it uses a fitted strap that conforms to the shape of the case. I just don’t know which one is actually used.
Price for the Tissot beauty? Not really sure. I would imagine $5,000 – $8,000 most likely. While this is expensive given the price of most Tissot timepieces, the price will be rather reasonable given the movement decoration and 18k gold case. UPDATE: Retail price for the timepiece is $7,250.