The Tissot Petite Seconde is an interesting watch, I am interested in Tissot, that’s for sure. However, the style of the Petite Seconde is similar to the IWC Portugieser 40, a clean dial with a sub-dial at 6 o’clock. The 42 mm 316L round stainless steel case has 20 mm lugs, a thickness of 11.4 mm and has a display caseback. The polished case looks like it may scratch easily, I do like the bezel, it is a little different to most designs with the step design.

The movement is an ETA 6498-1, this is a  hand-wound engine, this is what really interests me. I am looking for a timepiece with a hand-wound movement. With no rotor to impede the view, the mechanicals are on display with solid finishing and 25 jewels. The Tissot rotor is generally not to my tastes on their automatic movements, the finish isn’t great. The movement of this hand-wound movement through the display caseback looks great, the finish is excellent for the price point.

The dial is what sets this timepiece for me, the small centrally located minute hand at the 6 o’clock position is symmetrical, the no-date is another positive, this unbalanced the dial. The only date windows that interest me are the oversize date windows of German watches from the Saxony region. I have walked into a number of boutiques and I have been unable to actually handle the Petite Seconde. Actually, I do not see many of their vintage pieces in most boutiques. To be fair, they want to hold fast moving watches, they are not collectors, they are retailers. So if a model isn’t moving, I can hardly expect them to hold a timepiece in inventory, that is understandable.