On the finish of 2023, Tissot introduced a model new member of the historic T-Contact watch household often known as the Tissot T-Contact Join Sport. I’ve spent a couple of weeks evaluating this beautiful piece of high-end engineering and have so much to say about Tissot’s newest foray into software-based timekeeping instruments. Not solely am I keenly within the evolution of smartwatches and all issues associated to fashionable devices that take wristwatch type, however I’ve been rigorously following the event of Tissot’s fashionable T-Contact assortment because it was initially launched in 1999 (I imagine). I’ve owned a number of Tissot T-Contact watches and encourage you to see our many Tissot T-Contact articles on aBlogtoWatch through the years.
Tissot itself is aware of of my affinity for T-Contact watches, and I’ve been lucky to be aware about a whole lot of behind-the-scenes discussions concerning the Swiss firm’s vital “know-how watch.” That mentioned, I obtained the brand new T-Contact Join Sport from Tissot with out an excessive amount of context (which is enjoyable generally). That was fascinating for me, as I obtained to know the T-Contact Join Sport with out studying something about it, utilizing solely my evaluative powers. Solely after I had been testing the look ahead to some time did I learn the commentary and tech specs that Tissot ready for it. On the coronary heart of what Tissot is happy with within the T-Contact Join Sport is de facto the {hardware} and the “Swissness” of all of it. It is a lovely piece of recent digital know-how that delights the eyes and wrist similar to a “conventional” Swiss watch ought to. The T-Contact Join Sport is probably the most wearable and engaging related fashionable T-Contact product Tissot has produced, and I don’t assume anybody holding or sporting the watch will deny that.
Tissot T-Contact Meets New T-Contact Join Era
However there’s a deeper story about performance and software program that continues to be to be informed. The T-Contact Join Sport is a narrowly aimed product in that it’s a smartwatch that does sure issues, however not others. Due to this fact, the broader client attraction of the product is considerably restricted by the present features and options Tissot has determined to place into the software program expertise. Tissot doesn’t appear to disclaim any of that and alludes to a brand new upcoming period of iterative design and innovation that it hopes will yield extra Swiss Made know-how watches that characteristic many best-in-class elements. The 2023 Tissot T-Contact Join Sport is supposed to spotlight the place the Swatch Group at the moment is relating to its industrialization of such timepieces and affords customers a daring new step for T-Contact.
That is additionally the place I have to say that followers of yesterday’s T-Contact merchandise want to simply accept that the T-Contact as they know it’s in… nicely, hibernation. This watch might need simply as simply been referred to as the “Tissot T-Join Photo voltaic,” or one thing alongside these traces. When Tissot initially debuted the T-Contact, it was extremely revolutionary as a result of the wearer might contact the sapphire crystal in numerous areas to activate totally different watch features. That whole system is gone, as are many of the features (such because the sensor information) within the T-Contact Join Sport. You may, certainly, faucet and swipe (up and down, or aspect to aspect) the world over the AMOLED display, but it surely doesn’t actually have the identical impact or sensation because the expertise on earlier era T-Contact watches.
Extra so, the motorized hour, minute, and seconds palms serve no indication functions (apart from telling the principle time that’s) for the non-timetelling options of the T-Contact Join Sport. From what I can inform, their sole operate apart from telling the time is to maneuver out of the way in which when utilizing the small display, in order that the palms don’t block your view. The motors used to energy them are very speedy and slick, but it surely seems like a missed alternative in that they don’t function to point anything. The way in which I wrap my head round all of that is to not take into account the T-Contact Join Sport a watch that’s actually a part of the earlier era T-Contact household. For my part, that era of watches ended with the 2020 Tissot T-Contact Join Photo voltaic. It actually wasn’t an ideal product, and it was very giant (47.5mm extensive, 15.3mm thick), but it surely was a “conventional” T-Contact product, via and thru.
The 2023 Tissot T-Contact Join Photo voltaic is extra like a T-Contact reboot. It takes DNA components of the unique T-Contact assortment and places them into a wholly totally different product household of hybrid smartwatches. The unique T-Contact was born earlier than the period of recent smartwatches, and it was state-of-the-art for a very long time. As soon as smartwatches got here round, Tissot understandably tried to marry its fashionable T-Contact platform with related components. That merely didn’t make sense for customers in the long term, so Tissot made the smart move to rethink the T-Contact and begin with a brand new basis — that’s what the T-Contact Join Sport is, in my view. Having mentioned that, key options of the watch, such because the photo voltaic charging know-how, have been within the works by Tissot mother or father firm the Swatch Group for years now.
Showcasing New Swiss Made Photo voltaic Cell Know-how From The Swatch Group
Each Tissot and TAG Heuer are Swiss corporations that come to thoughts after I consider attempting to outdo the Japanese in terms of types of solar-powered watch know-how (with area of interest merchandise, in fact). The declare by each is that their photovoltaic cells permit for rather more energy era than these on many Japanese fashions. Within the case of Tissot, at the least, its amazing-quality photovoltaic cells aren’t solely produced in Switzerland however in-house by in-group firm Nivarox. Recognized principally for making hairsprings, Nivarox obtained into silicon part manufacturing and later the printing of photovoltaic cells for this and different upcoming merchandise. Now the Swatch Group has the interior capability to provide class-leading photovoltaic cells for wristwatches and different small system functions. Little question this may have implications for manufacturers like Tissot throughout the Swatch Group, in addition to for different industrial provider alternatives that permit the group to provide such elements for shoppers. Tissot has come a good distance by way of the look and efficiency of their solar-powered T-Contact watches. The primary got here out in 2013 and I obtained to evaluation one of many earlier fashions, the Tissot T-Contact Professional Photo voltaic, in 2014.
I believe you will need to additionally point out how the Swatch Group seems to vary from an organization resembling Citizen in terms of its philosophy behind implementing a watch dial with a photovoltaic cell on it. Citizen prefers to disguise this characteristic of the watch by creating sophisticated prism dials over their Eco-Drive actions that permit for some mild to enter – and for the dial to in any other case look “commonplace.” Tissot then again eschews this notion and makes many of the dial the photovoltaic cell. Relatively than disguise the cell by masking it (and thus permitting much less mild to hit it), the model’s perspective is to maximise charging potential whereas making the photovoltaic cell itself extra engaging. You may see the stark evolution of this over the past 10 years if you examine the photovoltaic cell dial of the 2013 T-Contact Professional Photo voltaic (hyperlink above) and that of 2023’s T-Contact Join Sport.
How does all of that translate right into a wristwatch-wearing expertise? Does the T-Contact Join Sport ever must be externally charged? How a lot real-world efficiency are you able to count on from a smartwatch with solar-charging performance? This is without doubt one of the hottest areas in smartwatches proper now and Garmin particularly is extremely invested in merging its smartwatches with solar-charging know-how. Photo voltaic-charging smartwatches are a bit like fuel/electrical hybrid vehicles. They permit the watch to be weaned off exterior energy, however the photo voltaic charging is just not a complete substitute for it. Tissot does say that in non-connected mode, the watch can survive with out exterior charging indefinitely should you get on common 20 minutes or so a day of daylight. That goes to 6 months in related mode should you get 35 minutes of daylight in your wrist every day. You’re going to get three months in “sport related mode” (which I suppose means a whole lot of exercise monitoring) should you get 60 minutes of daylight per day. That could be a bit odd for them to maintain shifting the daylight goalpost when making battery life guarantees in every of those modes. Once more, you possibly can merely connect the magnetic charging cable to the rear of the case for a comparatively fast recharge.
To summarize the photo voltaic component of the Tissot T-Contact Join Sport, it showcases lovely new know-how and componentry from the Swatch Group, that permits for this and future lovely watches with photovoltaic cell dial know-how. It produces a great quantity of power in comparison with many legacy “photo voltaic watch dials,” although maybe not fairly sufficient energy to fulfill Tissot’s bigger purpose of constructing a very autonomous (doesn’t must be charged) related watch utilizing solely in-house know-how.
The Most Comfy & Enticing T-Contact In A Lengthy Time
One of many issues that’s apparent to me concerning the T-Contact Join Sport is that Tissot first needed to make an exquisite well-made piece of {hardware}, after which to give attention to the software program and options component of it. That is vital as a result of the previous couple of generations of the T-Contact have been an ungainly compromise between measurement, efficiency, options, and magnificence. For this newest era of T-Contact Join, I can simply see Tissot’s product improvement staff beginning with absolutely the requirement that or not it’s each wearable and fairly. On this, they succeeded. Not solely do the revised (smaller) proportions of the T-Contact Join make it put on much more comfortably, however the total design and building of the T-Contact Join Sport are glorious. Tissot actually was capable of seize the essence of the T-Contact legacy each by way of how the watch appears and the supplies used for the case building, and that features specializing in titanium for many of the case’s building.
Sadly, the legacy “T-Contact” expertise is now not, as evidenced by the shortage of a devoted “T-Contact” pusher that activated the touch-receptive sapphire crystal in earlier variations. The case now has simply two pushers in addition to the assorted swipes and presses you can also make on the smaller AMOLED display part of the bigger dial, as enter choices. The case is nevertheless rather more compact than latest T-Contact mannequin generations being 42.5mm extensive and 12.8mm thick. The light-weight titanium case is given a brushed end with polished angles, and the bezel is right here produced from blue ceramic. Different out there variations of the T-Contact Join Sport have another colour choices resembling black or brown for the ceramic bezel. The watch case is water-proof to 50 meters.
One of many odder case options is on the 12 months of the watch, and it seems to be {hardware} for a coronary heart charge monitor. The one downside is that the present software program doesn’t appear to characteristic a coronary heart charge (or comparable) operate. Maybe that is {hardware} for future performance that Tissot will launch, however for now, I’m not clear what the electronics beneath the 2 charging port factors are. Transferring over to the dial, it is a lovely analog face within the spirit of T-Contact through the years. With that mentioned, it’s slightly easy and doesn’t embrace added issues or perhaps a backlight. Certainly the palms and hour markers are painted with SuperLumiNova, however with an exterior mild supply, you possibly can’t actually learn the time at nighttime as there’s each no backlight nor a present strategy to learn the time digitally through the brilliant AMOLED display.
T-Contact Join Sport Options & Capabilities
For greater than 20 years, the rationale individuals bought a Tissot T-Contact was to get a cool-looking gadget watch with a whole lot of options in it. It was for individuals who felt {that a} G-Shock was a bit too pedestrian for them, however who additionally wanted a compass once in a while. With the T-Contact Join Sport, Tissot has stripped again all of the common options from the T-Contact household and basically began over. Actually the one three remaining features from the unique T-Contact embrace the chronograph, countdown timer, and in addition the power to swap between “T1” and “T1” time zones (although you’ll want to use the app for that).
It might be a bit surprising for a lot of legacy T-Contact followers that the compass, altimeter, and barometer are lacking in motion. Extra startling to me is that the analog palms on the dial by no means repurpose themselves for something and all the additional options (apart from the time) are displayed through the small display. For me, that’s the largest disadvantage of the T-Contact Join Sport: the shortage of motorized palms performing numerous options. What individuals appeared to like probably the most was when the palms repurposed themselves right into a compass needle whereas in that practical mode. I don’t assume I would be the just one asking Tissot to think about how they will deliver again this core characteristic of the T-Contact, which is simple to overlook within the T-Contact Join Sport if it isn’t your first T-Contact watch.
So what does the T-Contact Join Sport do through the watch’s SwALPS (Swiss Autonomous Low Energy OS) working system, which doesn’t require entry to the companion cellphone app? Not a lot really. To start out, there are a restricted variety of primary watch settings to regulate in addition to to activate or off the Bluetooth connection characteristic (in order that it could possibly speak to your smartphone). Subsequent, the watch options the date and day of the week. The display additionally shows your present each day steps. Swipe up and you’ve got entry to a couple trackable exercise options the place you choose an out there sport or exercise if you wish to monitor an train session. Throughout these exercises, numerous information is collected such because the time of the exercise in addition to your movement and an estimate of energy burned. Final through the small show, the watch incorporates a stopwatch chronograph characteristic, in addition to an adjustable countdown timer.
The ultimate space of performance consists of smartphone notifications that pop up on the small show and supply a couple of traces of textual content. This lets you do issues resembling make notice of incoming textual content messages and e-mails. That could be a comparatively lean checklist of built-in options and doesn’t supply a lot for vacationers or outside adventurers. Because of this I discussed earlier that Tissot did a pleasant job with the T-Contact Join Sport however for a niche-sized viewers (that would simply be bigger with the inclusion of extra options and features).
The Companion T-Contact Smartphone Software program
Although Tissot touts autonomous features within the T-Contact Join Sport, just like the title of the watch implies, it’s designed to be related to a bunch cellphone system. The software program (complicated to seek for since it’s referred to as “T-Join” and never “T-Contact”) is an enchancment on that that got here with the earlier era Tissot T-Contact Join Photo voltaic. The software program makes it potential to each synchronize the time and date of the watch, and in addition to look at your exercise monitoring information in additional element.
The T-Join software program appears fairly and is slightly intuitive to make use of, regardless that it additionally affords restricted options. Just like the software program that comes with numerous Bluetooth-enabled Casio G-Shock watches, the software program additionally means that you can extra simply modify issues than on the watch, resembling timers. What I discovered a bit regarding nevertheless have been among the options which you’ll be able to completely discover on the T-Join software program that you simply can not discover on the watch itself. One good instance is the alarm characteristic. You may set occasions for the watch’s alarm to go off through the app, however you possibly can’t entry that characteristic through the watch itself. Extra problematic is the battery life indicator — which can also be unavailable through the watch itself — an omission that feels fairly evident. Maybe there’s a particular notification that pops up when the battery life is low, however in any other case, there doesn’t look like a strategy to verify the battery lifetime of the T-Contact Join Sport from the watch itself, solely the app software program supplies it if you find yourself related to your cellphone through Bluetooth.
Advisable Upcoming T-Contact Join Sport Options For Tissot To Contemplate
After sporting the Tissot T-Contact Join Sport for some time, I’ve developed a listing of some instructed options the corporate may need to take into account including to the present software program platform. These options wouldn’t solely make the watch extra “autonomous” and succesful away from the cellphone app however must also make the watch extra enjoyable to put on. That’s vital as a result of Tissot is clearly going for an emotional worth proposition with the T-Contact Join Sport. Possibly this watch doesn’t have all of the options of opponents, but it surely at the least must ship in fashion, magnificence, and enjoyable. These are the areas the place Tissot can compete probably the most.
It shouldn’t be too troublesome so as to add new options to the present SwALPS working system. Whereas primary, I’ll say that after a couple of minutes, the way in which to navigate the menus turns into slightly intuitive. It could be simple for Tissot to broaden the menus and screens, and thus add extra options. The primary few options I might suggest including are quite simple. First, the watch wants to have the ability to point out the present battery life. That’s a no brainer. Second, the watch must characteristic a digital readout for the present time. That is primarily as a result of you possibly can’t learn the analog dial at nighttime, and it’s helpful to have a backup method of studying the present time.
Subsequent, it could be good to have at the least one factor the analog palms do apart from indicating the principle time. I really feel that the palms are perfect to mix with the stopwatch and countdown timer features. In fact, a return of the digital compass that makes use of the analog palms because the needle pointing north can be equally welcome as a brand new characteristic.
Lastly, I believe there’s much more than Tissot can do with the photo voltaic a part of the T-Contact Join Sport story. First, I believe the watch ought to embrace a photo voltaic depth meter. Garmin now makes use of this on their solar-charging watches and it means that you can perceive how a lot mild (and with what depth) the watch face has been uncovered to. If the watch requires a sure quantity of daylight per day to keep away from needing exterior USB recharging, then it could be helpful to have software program that tells you with precision should you’ve achieved that each day purpose. Added to that is the human well being component of “getting sufficient solar.” Tissot might playfully mix the watch’s want for daylight with our personal human want for daylight (for vital issues just like the era of Vitamin D). Thus, pleasant reminders on the watch might counsel that you simply go exterior whereas there’s remaining daylight. The direct purpose is likely to be to cost your watch, and not directly you’ll get some Vitamin D and nature time. Figuring out what I learn about Swiss tradition, a “go exterior and get some daylight” indicator is true up the model’s alley.
Tissot T-Contact Join Sport Variations & Pricing
Tissot has a really good piece of {hardware} with the brand new T-Contact Join Sport. Performance and options could also be restricted and area of interest presently (UPDATE: For the reason that publication of this evaluation Tissot has added many new software program options to the watch in 2024 and can proceed to take action shifting ahead), however there’ll nonetheless be loads of people who find themselves romanced by this beautiful hybrid smartwatch package deal. Purists will miss legacy T-Contact performance, and fashionable smartwatch gadget lovers may miss among the extra sturdy performance that’s out there in usually uglier, however extra utility-packed competitor merchandise. At launch, Tissot affords six variations of the T-Contact Join Sport. Every has a titanium case, however some have PVD-coated black or rose gold-tone colour remedies and totally different dial colour accents. One of many fashions additionally has an identical titanium bezel versus a ceramic one. One mannequin additionally comes with an out there matching titanium bracelet. This specific Tissot T-Contact Join Sport has a pure titanium case with a blue ceramic bezel on the blue silicone strap and is the reference T153.420.47.051.01. Worth is $995 USD, and costs for different variations of the T-Contact Join Sport can go as much as $1,075 or $1,100 USD. Be taught extra on the Tissot watches web site.
