TISSOT – one of the grand swiss brands that still exists. Founded in Le Locle, Switzerland in 1853 by the locals Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son Charles-Émile Tissot they started as an assembler of parts. With a contact to the Czar of Russia made by the son in 1858 they sold pocket watches in the whole Empire through the next decades. The kids Paul and Marie were continued the company later. Around 1925 Tissot did a commercial partnership with Omega in which Société Suisse pour l’Industrie Horlogère (SSIH) was created. 50 Years later the SSIH merged with Allgemeine Schweizerische Uhrenindustrie AG (ASUAG) in 1985 into the Swatch Group.

Back to the Yachtings: some of the 60s/70s Tissots have blue segments – perfect for using measuring the time of a regatta start.

Tissot started with blue segments on the Siderals in the late 60s, fiberglass case, dial and bezel and bullhead case design. Then the 2- and 3 compaxes and Regatta watches with Lemania 1341 and 1345 movement were launched in the 70s.

One gets known by the research of our friend GVM (Gianvittorio Molteni) who discover the watch on one of the rare racedriver woman, Liane Engeman, well-known race driver in the late 1960s from the Netherlands. It´s the watch this post is starting with, white dial 3 compax Tissot Seastar.

Liane Engeman wearing her Tissot, Circuit Zandvoort on the start at Formule 3-race, 7 april 1969

Starting with the 2- and 3-compax watches with Lemania and Valjoux movements first.

The question “is a blue segment made for yachting?” is definitely answered in some ads, where especially the blue segment in the subdial is “made for yachting and regatta starts”!

Tissot produced these watches with many different dials and cases. Lets try to classify them and let´s differ two groups – the one with Lemania and the one with Valjoux movements. After that we have some with bezel and some without and different case materials. And 2 or 3compax.

You find all in this table.

(*1) Lemania cal 1281 was developed to Lemania cal 1873, that was co branded as Omega cal 861 and used inside the Speedmaster Pro.

Movement family (credit:ranfft.de)

Lemania 1277
family:
1270: no shock protection
1275: Kif shock protection
1276: Incabloc
1277: like 1276, but new minute counter jumper
1280: hour counter, Incabloc
1281: like 1280, but new minute counter jumper

Tissot 872 (Lemania 1277) (1969-)
family:
871: with hour counter
872: without hour counter

Lemania 1873 (1968-)
family:
1872: –
1873: hour counter
1883: hour counter, date moon phase

Omega 861 (Lemania 1873) (1968- , 500000 (1968-1996) | 1968-1992 pink gold plated)
family:
860: 17 jewels, base calibre
861: 17 Steine, 12h counter
862: 21 jewels, 12h counter
863: like 862, jubilee edition
864: like 862, jubilee chronometer
865: like 860, only 60s-counter
866: like 861, date, moon phase
867: like 862, jubilee chronometer, skelettonized
910: like 861, 2nd time zone, 24h display
911: like 861, 2nd time zone
920: like 860, only 60s-counter, date
930: like 860, date


Thanks a lot to Nico (@jimjupiter) for the research, scans and pics and to Rich Askham for informations on his cool blog thewatchspot.co.uk

Please send more stuff if you have some to ad! (background, advertisments, catalog-scans, text and pictures)!