BACK TO POLE POSITION
The brand from Le Locle brings one of its sports watches from the 70s up to date. Here, vintage spirit consorts with up-to-the-minute technical performances brilliantly.
With its 2024 PR516 models, Tissot recaptures the heyday of motor racing. This chronograph draws its style from the ever-so popular model unveiled back in 1968. The Peruvian race car driver, Henry Bradley (1940-2016), an avid Tissot fan and legendary rally figure, engraved its name on the bodywork of his Ferrari. These adornments from yesteryear and today aren’t easily ignored.
The counters and the small second on the intense black dial take on the same tri-compax position. And, just like in its older sibling, this time round, the watch jazzes up its sporty look with savvy dashes of orange and blue. This scenography, topped by a sapphire-crystal glassbox, is encircled by a functional bezel set off with a tachymetric scale and a pulsometer. And, to ensure optimal time reading whenever, wherever, the first quarter of the bezel is adorned with Super-LumiNova® just like the markers and the hands.
What’s more, not only is the design of the original PR516 perpetuated in this timepiece, but Tissot had the great idea of equipping its chronograph with a hand-wound movement just like in its models from the 70s. As such, a caliber specially developed for the occasion, beats inside the 41 mm-diameter case. Some of the components can be admired through the sapphire-crystal caseback. This movement, the Valjoux A05.291, a spin-off of the 7753, offers a dazzling performance. It delivers a comfortable power reserve of 68 hours that’s totally in tune with the times. Its timekeeping is brilliant, around +/- 5 seconds a day. Worth noting too is that Tissot also rolls out his chronograph in three variations complemented by a metal bracelet and driven by a quartz movement nestling inside a 40 mm-diameter case.
