The New Handwound Tissot Antimagnetique Heritage 2018

Tissot is a brand that we visit every year and Baselworld 2018 was no different.  They bring a wide variety of pieces such as the T-Touch, various dress watches and typically a piece that recalls the brand’s rich history. For 2018, we weren’t disappointed as the the brand brought the brand new Tissot Antimagnetique Heritage 2018.

While there are some brands that discuss their role in the development of antimagnetic watches, it’s Tissot that claims ownership of the first watch developed with such properties. The brand launched such a watch in the 1930’s and has decided to give us a re-interpretation with the Tissot Antimagnetique Heritage 2018.

As a note, Tissot was quick to tell us that this piece isn’t highly antimagnetic (to roughly 64 Gauss), but likely more on the order of the original version.

With so many interesting vintage watches to draw inspiration from, the Tissot Antimagnetique Heritage 2018 was an interesting choice for a regular production introduction.  That being said, large diameter (read: 38mm and above) dress watches from the 30’sand 40’s have quietly been gaining ground on the vintage scene.  They’re a bit anonymous as many didn’t contain model names per se, but these large watches were made by brands such as Tissot, Doxa, and Eterna amongst many others.  You can see above that our own Balazs owns a lovely Antimagnetique from the 40’s and perhaps he’ll detail it at some point soon.

With the new Tissot Antimagnetique Heritage 2018, we get a 42mm stainless-cased watch with the well-known Unitas (ETA) 6498 handwound movement.  This movement was featured in the 1936 Heritage piece that we detailed after Baselworld 2016.

As you can see, it’s nicely finished on the new version and it’s a nice, smooth interactive piece to wind. Despite the see-through case back, the watch is water resistant to 50M.

Dial-wise, the Tissot Antimagnetique Heritage 2018 comes with a simple white/silver dial, arabic numerals in black and a small subseconds dial at 6:00.  It’s attractive and the slim bezel definitely makes the watch look larger than its 42mm size.

From the side, you can see that brushed finishing is used on the mid-case an that definitely makes a classy look.  Interestingly, the case contains a 20mm lug width and can be purchased with either a black or sueded brown strap with butterfly folding clasp.  In what was perhaps a bit of a surprise, Tissot opted to use a domed sapphire crystal in lieu of a traditional acrylic lens.  The choice strikes me as a bit odd, but in the metal, the sapphire looks great and it’s certainly the more durable material.

Little by little, Tissot is doing more to embrace its noted history.   Last year, we had the beautiful 1948 Heritage chronograph and now we get the Tissot Antimagnetique Heritage 2018.  The watch does wear large and it’s honestly a bit too much for me (I do have small wrists), but I applaud the company for giving us an affordable, and very wearable, manual wind option.  How affordable?  The new Antimagnetique will cost a very reasonable 1000 Euros when it becomes available later this year.