Now lately I’ve been receiving a number criticisms about the watches that I feature on this site and about the site in general.  I’ve been told that the watches on the site are generally too expensive, and that I should feature more affordable watches on this site.

So here’s one:

Zodiac Zo2244 Sea Dragon Ladies Watch

Yup it’s the, um…, it’s the Zodiac Sea Dragon.  It’s $150.00 give or take, and as a looker I think it looks alright.  The fact that its midsized means that a girl or boy can wear it, it’s a quartz and it’s got a date and a bezel, and what’s more is that this series of watches I’m told is literally INFUSED with a light vanilla scent.  So if the smell of rubber of leather makes you vomit, it’s nice to know you have a healthy alternative.

So if you are a woman and don’t care about the brand, the pathetic water resistance, and the fact that all Zodiac watch wearers are serial killers, than by all means buy it!

I, however, find this watch to be passionless junk, the Toyota Yaris of the watch world.  Kinda funky, but primarily designed to just get the job done.

That’s why I bought one of these:

Tissot PRC200 T-Sport Mens Watch T17.1.586.42

You see life is about living, and time is to precious to be measured on a basic watch.  Forget the Zodiacs, the Timex, and the Casio, get one of these!

A few posts ago I lamented over the costly breakdown of my beloved Seiko Black Monster and how that has filled a void in my heart, but those days are a distant memory and now there is a new love in my life!

It’s weird how the few watches I own now all caught me by complete surprise, and this one is no exception.  This watch just kind of popped out a display case and when I put it on it was complete magic, and now that I’ve had it for a little over a month now, I can tell you exactly what I think of it.

T17168642 – Tissot

Well to start I didn’t get any ordinary Tissot PRC 200, I got the 2007 limited edition commemorating the 2007 Pan-American games (whatever they are).  The difference is that instead of having white hands, all of the chronograph hands are in a very vivid yellow that contrasts the blue dial nicely, and it has an engraving on the back which I’ve never really been bothered to look at.

To be honest with you though, I’ve never really liked chronographs and watches that are shiny general, but as I age into my late-20’s I’ve noticed that my tastes have been changing and that I really don’t mind.

Something that I don’t really mind either is the tachy-meter and what I love about this quartz chronograph is that it operates kind of like an automatic chronograph so you don’t ever really notice.  The seconds are the 6 o’clock subdial and the push button clasp is solid.  What I love more about this watch is that it’s not some over-sized over-shiny silly thing that are aimed toward men with confidence issues, it’s only 40mm so it sits on your wrist like any ordinary wristwatch:

T17168642 – Tissot

After a month I can say I’m absolutely in love with this watch.  It is the the most dramatic departure from my “normal” tastes in wristwatches, but I believe I have come into an age where I can wear a watch like this and wear it well.

You know it’s funny, but watches that seem to click with me are just found completely at random within the wild.  It doesn’t matter how much I may think I like a watch when looking at in a catalog or on the internet, the only thing that seems to jive with me is when I actually slap it on my wrist the very first time.  There is an instant gut feeling that tells me that this is going to be the start of a beautiful relationship.

Case in point, the watch my wife bought me last year for my birthday was something that completely smacked me from way out in left field.  I had never looked at Hamilton watches before, but when I slapped the Khaki King Automatic on my wrist for the very first time it was as though a surge of electricity had come over me.

God that was a good birthday:

Hamilton H64455533 Men’s Khaki King Automatic Black Dial Strap, Free Shipping

Last year I fell completely in love with the Tag Heuer Monaco, and it just came out of left field.  Thinking square watches unbalanced somehow I was really taken aback and how much that watch had affected me.  Seeing as how my Seiko Diver had just recently broke, my zen-like state with watches has been shattered.  Where I was at peace with my small but passionate watch collection, I am now at an a crucial moment in which there is no true sports watch at all within my small collection.  That is, until now…

Well ladies and gentlemen, I fell in love again, and this one is a shocker!!!

Recently I had been looking at various watch shops looking for a watch that will fill the void in my heart without much success.  Thinking feelings of ‘been there and done that’ with Omega and Rolex, my search had led me to other brands, but nothing really sparked my interest.  Thinking Breitling too large, Chopard to ornate, IWC too angular, and every other “luxury” sport watch just, “eh…” I oftentimes returned with feelings of big disappointment.

That is until one day I just happened to need some electrical tape and went down to a local mall.  This mall, not really known for being a hot spot of watch activity, I just happened upon a small jewelry store with a small watch selection that was just limited to Rado and Tissot.  Killing time during the work day I saw a very interesting watch and tried it on, and it… was… magic!!!

It was the Tissot PRC200 Chronograph:

Tissot T17158642 Men’s T-Sport PRC200 Chronograph Blue Dial, Free Shipping, Free Sizing

I’m still debating if I should get the black dial or the blue dial version, but this watch has many of the features that I appreciate about watches.  It is simple, clean, and functional.  I love the yellow hands for the chronograph features and I love how clean and simple the bracelet and the bezel are.  Yes it is a quartz, but it’s chronograph function is so not quartz-like that I just love it.  The fact that the seconds are on the 6 o’clock subdial means that the tick…tick…tick of the quartz can easily be overlooked.  Yes it also has a tacky-meter, but that can be overlooked as well.

By far the most intricate quartz watch from Switzerland that I am aware of is the Tissot T-Touch:

Tissot T-Tactile T-Touch Screen Men’s Watch Stainless Steel Black Dial T33158851

…and that’s just a gimmicky gadget more for computer nerds rather than those serious about quality watches.

The further you go up in the price spectrum, the worse it becomes I’m afraid.

Take for example the Breitling Aerospace Advantage (which is Swiss for all you watch idiots out there):

Breitling Aerospace Avantage Digital Mens Watch E7936210/M513

This watch is pretty expensive, but on the plus side it is a quartz watch that can track a second time zone, has a countdown timer, has an alarm, and also has a a chronograph.

That’s all good stuff, but wait!!!

This Citizen watch (which is of course Japanese), has got pretty much all that same stuff too:

Citizen Jy0010-50e Eco Drive Mens Watch

On top of that it can track the time in 43 world cities, is solar powered, syncs up with an atomic clock for infinitely precise time, and it’s got a perpetual calendar to boot.  Zounds!

Did I also mention that this, even factoring in any discounts likely to be had with the Breitling, costs $2,000 less as well?

Well if you’ve ever compared Japanese cars against European cars, I’m sure this won’t come as any surprise, but this is yet another arena in which the Japanese have got the Europeans finger licked.

The Japanese quartz watches being offered by companies like Citizen, Seiko, and Casio, offer much better value than anything the Swiss could hope for, and besides that, whereas the Swiss still struggle with basic multifunction quartz watches, the Japanese offer quartz watches that operate with solar power (or kinetic power), sync up with atomic clocks, and offer complex functions such as a perpetual calendar and minute repeater.

In other words, they are light years ahead, and when it comes to mechanical movements they have not only made mechanical watches with better value, but they have meshed old mechanical watch technology with all the benefits of quartz-watch accuracy as well.

Sure there are many good Swiss quartz movements out there in the entry-level watches you’d find out of Tag Heuer, Omega, and Rolex (made by ETA no less), but besides keeping just the basic functionality of time and date, and maybe  a chronograph, they don’t do squat.

And for me, it is seriously difficult to find a single Swiss, quartz-powered watch that goes beyond the same boring functionality that I had in my digital watches 20 years ago.

Quite frankly, when it comes to the quartz watch, I can’t entirely blame them.  I mean the Japanese did invent the quartz watch so they must be better with the stuff, and with so many people eating up the old school mechanical incarnations of the Swiss, why even bother?

I say let the Japanese do what they do best, and let the Swiss do what they do best!

Outside of any digital watch you may know of, what watch do you know of that has ALL of the following features:

- Compass
- Chronograph
- Thermometer
- Altimeter
- Barometer
- Alarm
- Time (obviously)

The T-Touch may be old news now that it has been out for a few years, but the number of watches that have come out that can match the T-Touch in its superior multi-functionality can barely be measured in single digits.

To sum it up, there is not a single watch quite like the Tissot T-Touch.

Tissot T-Touch Titanium – T33.7.888.92 Gents Watch

And would you just look at it! The T-Touch isn’t like your ugly Casio G-Shock, it’s a work of beauty with a pretty bracelet and a very clean and attractive design. It’s not too big, not to small, it’s dial is not too busy, yet not too simple either; it is just right. It comes in a variety of colors and straps, but in the opinion of your humble presenter, the titanium with the black carbon fiber dial as pictured above is the most attractive.

So then, how does it operate?

Well it’s not called the T “Touch” for nothing…

In this watch you will find technology that is more akin to a car’s GPS device rather than a watch. If you want to know the temperature or use the altimeter all you have to do is touch a part of the watch crystal and it will instantly tell you information you want to know. Get lost in the woods? Just touch the crystal in the 6 o’clock position above where it says “compass” and the hour and minute hands will instantly move to create an arrow pointing toward the magnetic north pole.

The T-Touch uses a touch-sensitive crystal so that in the instance that you ever got lost somewhere with bleeding hands and are otherwise incapable of operating complicated crowns and buttons, all you would have to do is use your bloodied hands to touch a part of the crystal so that you can at least know the time, altitude, temperature, and barometric pressure conditions in which you have perished.

Well that sounds all good on paper, and after personally handling the T-Touch I have to say that it is an interesting little novelty, but would you ever buy one?

Well the answer for me is a very simple NO!

For starters, the novelty of the watch is exactly that, a novelty! These things are notoriously unreliable and while a great number of T-Touch watches are made of titanium they are not able to withstand the knocks that their muscular facade leads their owners to believe. On top of that, if you get these watches in water any deeper than the kiddie pool, your watch is history.

The fact that the functions of the watch require the constant movement of the hours and minutes hands leads it to be quite thirsty in the battery department as well. So while it may be good to wear this thing to a weekend barbecue to impress your friend, trusting that its functions will work when you need it the most is a bit of a leap of faith.