I am pretty impressed with the Tissot Heritage 1938 Reference T142.464.16.332.00. Whilst an entry-level Swiss watchmaker in the Swatch Group, Tissot has a great back catalog based on Tissot’s long history. When you have great designs in the archive, the love of vintage designs by enthusiasts, a watchmaker needs not look far for great designs. Take a look at the success of the Visodate, the PRX, and the Telemeter 1938.

This is a 39 mm diameter 316L stainless steel case that is 11 mm in height. The case is brushed and polished, with a domed front and flat back sapphire crystal. The flat onion-style crown has a vintage Tissot T; the crown is push-in and hence 50 meters water-resistant. The strap is a grey pin and buckle type with quick release pins.

The matte salmon dial has a printed minute track with slightly raised numerals with a black finish. I really like this colouring, there is matte black on the numerals and baton hands. The vintage Tissot logo above the hand axis and chronometre marking below the hand axis with no date window offers a brilliantly clean dial.

What the Heritage 1938 is all about is the COSC certified ETA 2824-2 automatic movement beating at 28,800 vph [4 hz] with 25 jewels and a 38 hour power reserve. COSC certified accuracy ensures a Swiss mechanical movement has been tested by the independent Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres [COSC] with a verified accuracy of – 4 to + 6 seconds per day over a 15 day regime at three different temperatures.

Tissot is mostly using the Powermatic 80 in just about all of its current range of watches, so this is pretty interesting for me. However, the Powermatic 80 that offers the 80 hour power reserve works on 3 Hz [21,600 vph]. So the movement frequency has been slowed to improve the power reserve but comes at a cost of accuracy. The downside of 3 Hz is the second hand is more jerky and accuracy is reduced, but power reserve is what people want now.