Impressions of the Tissot Ballade Powermatic 80 COSC

Tissot Ballade Powermatic 80 COSC – Serious Watchmaking Tech for the Price

What instantly stood out when Tissot launched the Powematic 80 was its 80-hour power reserve. For under $1000  you get a dressy watch available in a range of dial colours, a sapphire anti-reflective dial and a mechanical 80-hour power reserve movement.

The Ballade Powermatic 80 COSC can be seen as the spiritual successor to the Powermatic 80. It features everything that made the original a great value mechanical watch, whilst adding even more watchmaking tech. It is not only COSC certified, but it also houses a patented silicon balance spring and a patented regulator-assembly. The Ballade is perhaps one of the best examples of the benefits economies of scale can bring to brands under the Swatch Group umbrella. Consumers are the real winners, getting access technology typically found on much more expensive watches.

Clous de Paris Decorated Case

The Ballade features a 316L stainless steel case with see-through case back and a sapphire anti-reflective coated dial. Giving you a crystal clear view of the Clous de Paris hobnail patterned dial. The same pattern is also found on the bezel and compared to the relatively thin bezel found on the Powermatic 80, that of the Ballade is considerably thicker. The textured pattern found on the dial does a great job of offering some textural contrast against both the satin finished surface found on the case and on the dial. Its water-resistant to up to pressure of 5 bar (50 m / 165 ft), but then again, being more of a dressy watch you wouldn’t expect much higher. There’s enough variation across all 7 of the Ballade Powermatic 80 COSC watches to please many differing tastes.

On the Dial

The Ballade features Arabic numeral hour markers at the 12 and 6 o’clock, a date window at the 3 and “Powermatic 80 Chronometer” printed over 2 lines above the 6. Aside from the 6 and 12, the remaining baton hour indexes and their matching polished dauphine-type of hands are a more dainty take on the slightly thicker Heritage Visodate hands and hour markers.

Running around the edge of the dial is a slim seconds track. Stepping inwards, between the seconds track and the inner hobnail dial lies a smooth inner ring. There’s more going on than a casual glance at the watch would suggest. It features a  busier dial compared to the original Powermatic, with a distinctive look, and sits well within Tissot’s line of more dressier classical looking watches.

Magnetized World

In an increasingly magnetised world, it’s good to see Tissot include a silicon hairspring. First used by Ulysse Nardin in its Freak watches back in 2001, up until now, the use of silicon has typically been restricted to watches costing significantly more than the Ballade. It is fitting though, considering Tissot has been at the forefront of combating the effects of magnetism on watches since the 30’s. In fact, the Tissot Heritage Petite Seconde is actually inspired by Tissot’s early antimagnetic watches first launched in 1943 appropriately called the Antimagnétique.