In February 2024, I first practiced the lovely new Tissot Touch Connect Sport, a hybrid of traditional quartz watches and modern sports watches. The T-Touch Connect Sport family is a distinct product from the legacy T-Touch series, bringing the surprisingly popular family of analog-digital, highly functional sports watches into the era of smartwatches. When I originally reviewed the Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport, I found a set of software limitations and a general feature needs detailed in detail. The good news is that Tissot’s software team is constantly updating its Tissot T-Touch Connect Sports firmware and the “T-Connect” application on mobile phones (it’s still hard to find by simply searching for “Tissot” in either app store). Today, let’s talk about some of the new features Tissot has rolled out for this innovative product from the Swiss brand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzs7brpyidk
As someone who has reviewed many smartwatches (especially from legacy watch makers), what I can easily say is that there is no “good” product for everyone. The challenges for engineers are substantial. On the one hand, consumers want style, comfort, and autonomy (i.e. long battery life). On the other hand, they want perfect integration, quick software, laundry list of features (many of them not used), and many application integrations and connections between the smartwatch and other software they use. The reality is that engineers and developers need to balance many competing factors. What Tissot wanted to do with the T-Touch Connect Sport is that a) surprises the hardware, unlike what their rivals can offer, b) emulates traditional surveillance experiences as much as possible, c) re-enters the Swatch Group and enters a rather competitive field of software-based watch products.
In our initial review of the Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport, we discussed solar cell (manufactured in-house by the Swatch Group) and the impressive solar charging capabilities and powerful battery life of the T-Touch Connect Sport. So this is one of the most autonomous (long battery life that is fully charged even on the light) and truly beautiful hybrid smartwatches. Tissot spent a very long time making sure the T-Touch Connect Sport was worn as elegantly as many classic watches and looked attractive on the wrist. In this article, we photographed the T-Touch Connect Sport reference T1534204705104 black PVD coated titanium version (using a black ceramic bezel). As a reminder, there is a 43.8mm case that is 13.5mm thick and is water resistant to 50 meters. Above the dial is a touch sensitive sapphire crystal, and the watch is easy to use a 21mm wide silicone strap (matching titanium bracelets are also available, but not coated black).
Tissot has made some important core changes to the onboard software for the T-Touch Connect Sport, but there are few visible changes to the T-Connect software, including information that can be viewed in The Watch Tracks Your Data and the app. This watch is not actually intended to be an activity tracker in itself, but is designed to collect data that is examined in detail on a pair of smartphone devices. This is unlike other more fully-featured smartwatches that allow you to access more data from the device itself.
My favorite new feature on the watch is a fun tool, but I don’t go as far as I can. Tissot has added a neat “Solar Energy Level” screen that shows how intense the current level of light hits the dial is. Perhaps the higher the solar energy level, the more the battery will be charged through the solar cell. This is cool and interesting, but it doesn’t tell you how much sun your watch is exposed to or whether it’s charging it efficiently enough. Solar energy levels simply indicate current intensity without helping you understand the details of how long the clock will be in sunlight. Remember, one of the reasons I mentioned this feature as important before is that it can be seen not only how efficiently the wearer is charging his watch, but also when his body is exposed to a lot of sunlight. As I write this article, in Los Angeles it is currently around 110 degrees (f), making the solar exposure meter a more welcome feature than ever.
Other small but important new features added include the ability to display the current battery life of the watch itself (previously only available in apps, but is now “secretly” active by pressing a small digital display for about two seconds with your finger), and the ability to view the current time digitally (or set it as a different time zone). Tissot intentionally separates the hands from the main time of the dial and the features and information in the screen area. In the future, we hope that digital display of information will help make the hands more integrated, as well as what we enjoyed about Legacy Generation’s Tissot T-Touch Watches.
Tissot has also refined how the T-Touch Connect Sport is intended to operate as a sports tracking and activity watch. Essentially, the idea is that the watch tracks activity and exercise training (passively or by activating the workout tracking feature), reviewing data and learning more insights through the app. For example, the watch has an onboard heart rate monitor and does not provide any information that can be viewed from the watch (such as notifying your current heart rate). Instead, you need to look at your phone. While dedicated athletes and sports enthusiasts need a more robust activity tracking device for many people who want more basics and don’t want to switch watches all the time, Tissot offers a great blend of meaningful activity and exercise tracking features and easy wear when watches are used in conjunction with the T-Connect application.
Many of these trade-offs come in the name of battery life and product aesthetics. Battery life is the plus part of this watch. This can range from 6 months (without the need to charge) to about 3 weeks in regular sports tracking mode. In addition to solar/light charging available for screen-based high-efficiency solar cells, Tissot uses a magnetic USB charger that connects to the back of the case to power on the watch. Tissot wanted to emphasize a really long battery life, so I found that software generally sucks in power (which was a success).
I like to ask myself, “Who is this product?”, as I use all hybrid and full-featured smartwatches. Tissot doesn’t have the most expensive high-end smartwatches or hybrid products on the market, but considering it’s a Swiss-made product from legacy luxury watchmakers, it’s also not the most affordable product on the market. What you’re paying for is hardware. This is really great considering Tissot is part of the Swatch group and perhaps the most capable industrial group in the world that makes watches the world. This is a watch that is good enough that you’ll probably want to wear it for years, even if the typical lifecycle of a smartwatch for many consumers is around a year.
Young people, casual wearers, and those who want a traditional look watch with mostly some new smartwatch features will be happiest with the Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport. The watch is stylish, well made, comfortable and very easy. Some people who have experienced smartwatches more lament the lack of certain onboarding capabilities, but given how unfussed the T-Touch Connect Sports is, it’s easy to allow them to give on a regular wear base. Keep pushing Tissot to develop more features and software for T-Touch Connect Sport. We are extremely pleased that Swatch Group and Tissot, the Smartwatch and Hybrid Smartwatch Arena, arena, are serious candidates. The price for this version of the Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport is $1,075 USD. Find out more on the Tissot website.
