Hands-On: The Tissot Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium Watch

When a watch feels at home at work, at a wedding, in a bar, on a hike, and on a vacation, you might think it lacks character. You could also imagine that a watch that’s able to pull off something like that has tons of personality and qualities, enabling it to stand tall everywhere you take it. Let’s go hands-on with the Tissot Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium in three configurations to find out if this is the watch equivalent of a chameleon.

The Tissot Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium is a discrete watch. Too discrete? Well, I opened the box holding the three executions of the watch, it didn’t send lightning bolts through my brain. But when I got the version with a black dial and a brown strap with a folding clasp dialed in and put it on the wrist, it did feel good. The 40 × 11.5mm case is just the right size for my wrist and eyes, and the relatively broad shiny bezel gives the Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium quite a bit of presence. The powerfully shaped hands and indexes, filled with Super-LumiNova, also have certain robustness to them. And the crosshair dial is a nice and subtle touch that adds a bit of class.

The Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium is just like the Carpenters

Whatever the Tissot Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium does, it does so in style. It adds panache to your denim and sneakers attire – a little less than the  PRX Powermatic 80 and it’s also a neat, all-business allrounder that sits nicely under the cuff of your dress shirt.

40 mm is the perfect, do-all, middle-of-the-road, modern case size.

If the case measured 39 mm it would have been too small for most modern people, but 41mm would have been too big to play the role of a classic business watch. 40 mm is the perfect, do-it-all, middle-of-the-road, modern case size. And there’s nothing wrong with being middle-of-the-road. Everybody likes a melodic, smooth Carpenters song. Only a few can dig the blast beats of black metal band Mayhem.

Sillicium and silicon are the same

Speaking of beats, inside the steel case beats the ETA C07.811 caliber, we know by its much more enticing name Powermatic 80. The version in the Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium uses a silicon hairspring to lengthen its lifespan, enhance the accuracy, and fight off magnetic disturbances with greater ease than a conventional balance spring.

The power reserve is sufficient to sit out the weekend. So if the owner decides to wear a different watch or nothing at all, come Monday morning all is still well. Meaning, the date doesn’t need adjusting. Maybe not enough time for an extra snooze or second cup of coffee, but still, marginal gains. Well, albeit marginal, the benefits of a silicon hairspring are significant enough for Tissot to proudly announce its presence on the dial.

Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium, what else?

What more do you want to know regarding the Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium? We had three versions — with green, blue, and black dials — one of them on a leather strap with a folding clasp and two with a polished and brushed steel bracelet. On a leather strap with a deployant clasp, the Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium has a price of €790. A full metal version will set you back €855. Incredible value for money.

Having said that, I really don’t like the leather strap. It’s just too old school, squeaky, and tough for my taste. But that’s an issue that can be solved easily. And please note, there’s nothing wrong with the bracelet. It can compete with quite a lot of bracelets in the higher price brackets. But please don’t compare it to bracelets Rolex and Omega produce, thank you.

A word of advice

Please take my well-meant advice into consideration. If you’re seriously tempted to buy a Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium, hear me out. Pick out the dial color you like best and go for the bracelet version. And once you have done that, find yourself one, two, or a variety of different leather straps to play with. It’s definitely worth the extra €65 for the bracelet. And buying straps doesn’t need to cost the world, but it opens up a world of possibilities for the watch.

… the Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium is a modern classic and a veritable chameleon.

What about green calf for the black-dialed version? Or a brown nubuck one for the version with a green dial. And a gray suede one for the blue-dialed version would look very cool, IMHO. Anyway, the Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium is a modern classic and a veritable chameleon. Good value for money? You bet.

Check out all the different models of the Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium on Tissot’s official website.

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