Tissot Launches New Additions To The Seastar Collection

The market for dive watches is very healthy. If a friend comes to me looking for recommendations for their first watch, I usually direct them towards this style of watch first of all. The reason is that aside from the fact dive watches are built to handle more than what the average wearer might throw at it, there’s also an incredible amount of choice. The chances are that nearly everyone can find a watch that suits their tastes. Color, size, shape, and more — the possibilities are endless. Tissot has thrown its hat into the ring once again with its new additions to its Seastar collection of watches designed to fit any wrist, any time, any place.

Not everyone who buys a watch ends up as a collector with several pieces to suit a variety of situations. Some people end up sticking to that famous “one watch collection”. For most of us, we tried and failed miserably, but some people genuinely want a single watch that’s suitable for all environments. That’s why I usually recommend dive watches. Tissot has a long history with dive watches, stretching back to the 1960s. Fast forward to 2022, and Tissot has made various improvements and upgrades to propel its dive watches to where they are today.

The latest additions to the Tissot Seastar collection

Flying the flag for the updated Seastar line are the Tissot Seastar 1000 Quartz and Seastar 2000 Professional Powermatic 80. These two watches share the same bloodline but offer very different experiences based on what you might need. Tissot describes them as having been born in the Swiss mountains but ready for life beneath the waves.

Tissot Seastar 1000 Quartz

The 36mm Seastar 1000 Quartz is available with a choice of three dial colors. While blue is perhaps the most versatile, in my opinion, the other colors are equally as attractive. The black dial benefits from yellow-gold-colored highlights on the dial and bezel, whereas the white lacquered dial is perhaps a little more feminine by comparison. Each version features an anti-reflective, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal on the front and comes on a sturdy steel bracelet with polished center links. Tissot also offers a range of colorful silicone-rubber straps should you want to add an additional splash of color. Owners can choose from zesty orange and radiant white to calming light blue and technical-looking black.

The 36mm Seastar 1000 is still a serious dive watch despite its diminutive size. It’s water-resistant to 30 bar (300m/1000ft), and it has a uni-directional rotating bezel for timing dives. The quartz movement is also equipped with an EOL (end-of-life) indicator to avoid the battery running out mid-dive. Tissot uses the ETA F05.412 caliber to power the Seastar 1000. It features HeavyDrive technology for shock resistance and PreciDrive technology for phenomenal accuracy of ±10 seconds per year. That’s eight to ten times greater accuracy than with a standard quartz movement, and it is on par with the revered Grand Seiko 9F calibers. With the stock Renata 371 battery installed, the movement provides roughly four years of battery life.

Tissot Seastar 2000 Professional Powermatic 80

On the flip side of the Seastar 1000, we have its bigger brother, the Seastar 2000 Professional. This watch uses the Swatch group’s impressive Powermatic 80 self-winding movement. When I call it the bigger brother, I’m not joking. The Seastar 2000 Professional jumps up to a wrist-dominating 46mm, making the 36mm Seastar 1000 pale in comparison. But, Tissot aims for the Seastar 2000 Professional to be a professional dive watch, hence the name. Any professional divers will know that size is not a bad thing when it comes to dive instruments. Legibility and reliability are critical, and Tissot has both of these areas well covered.

Tissot offers buyers a choice of two colors, and both dials feature an eye-catching dégradé effect. The first has a gray center that transitions to black at the edges, with gold-accented hands, hour markers, and bezel markings to create a classic and sophisticated aesthetic. The other model sits inside a black PVD-coated case, with a rich blue dial that fades to black at the periphery. Aside from the colors, Tissot’s wave motif completes these dials. It’s attractive and not over the top, which is always a risk with something like this. Legibility is present by the bucketload thanks to a generous application of Super-LumiNova on the hands and hour markers.

As previously mentioned, the Seastar 2000 Professional has Swatch Group’s self-winding Powermatic 80 movement beating away inside. Eighty hours of power reserve is more than enough for most people, although this bump in power reserve comes at the expense of a drop in operating frequency to 21,600vph compared to the ETA 2824-2 that it’s based on. Completing the watch’s diving résumé is an ample 600m water resistance, an automatic helium-escape valve, and ISO 6425 (2018) diver’s watch certification.

Pricing and availability

Of the two models, the Seastar 2000 is my favorite. I think that the romanticism of the mechanical movement definitely plays a part, but the wave-motif dial caught my eye, and the blacked-out, blue-dial version is an attractive watch. Not being blessed with the sturdiest of wrists, I’m not sure I could get past the sizing from a personal perspective, but still. Tissot has done an excellent job producing a collection of well-built watches offering high-end technical performance at excellent prices. What more could you want? The new Tissot Seastar 1000 Quartz and Seastar 2000 Professional Powermatic 80 are available now, and you can find out more on the official Tissot website.

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