Tissot Visodate Camping wristwatch, 1957

We have said this before, we are fans of the Tissot brand. What Tissot has done well over the last 170 years is bridge the gap between luxury and affordability in the Swiss watch industry. This is what we like about the Tissot brand. They produce honest, good-quality watches at an affordable price. They appeal to all watch collectors. We have owned a few, both new and vintage, and will no doubt own a few more before we are done. In this instance, we have come across one of the more obscure Tissot models, one which hasn’t been revived in the Heritage range, the Tissot Camping watch. To be more specific, a Tissot Visodate Camping wristwatch dating from 1957.

A brief history of Tissot

Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son Charles-Émile Tissot founded Tissot in 1853 by in Le Locle, Switzerland. They established a small workshop attached to the family home. They purchased ébauche (blank) movements and assembled watches by hand. In the late nineteenth century, Tissot expanded beyond Switzerland. Charles-Émile travelled to Russia to promote the brand. He built a strong reputation in the Russian Empire. Tissot’s quality and style impressed customers abroad. As a result, Tissot’s reputation grew, earning international recognition (Tissot at Watch Wiki).

By the early twentieth century, Tissot was well established in Swiss watchmaking. The brand broke new ground by creating one of the first anti-magnetic watches in 1930. In 1915, Tissot began producing its own movements, including wristwatches. This innovation marked a major turning point for the company. The global financial collapse in 1929 shook the watch industry. In 1930, Tissot merged with Omega SA and Lemania to form SSIH (Société Suisse pour l’Industrie Horlogère). Despite the merger, Tissot maintained its unique identity and continued to produce watches under its own name.

Tissot introduced several models in the 1950s and 1960s, such as Seastar, Visodate, T12 and the PR 516. These brands still exist today as part of Tissot’s Heritage range. Tissot’s association with sports timekeeping began in 1938, when officials used a Tissot watch to time a series of Alpine ski races. Tissot has also had close ties with other sports, from the Davis Cup in 1957 to its close timing partnerships with bicycling and motorcycling championships. During the 1980s, Tissot joined the Swatch Group, the world’s largest watch producer and distributor.

Tissot Camping

Tissot introduced the Camping model in 1938. It was named to indicate its suitability for a rugged outdoor life. It had good water resistance and dust resistance as well as an “unbreakable” plexiglass crystal and a stainless steel case. The Tissot Camping model was in production until at least the late 1950s in a variety of designs. Some examples, such as this one, had stainless steel cases, while others used chrome-plated cases. There were variations with the case back, some were screw-in, others had simple snap-ons.

Contemporary advertising claimed the Tissot Camping model included the following features:

1) New protection against dust.

2) Hermetic protection against humidity.

3) Better lubrication, ensuring more precise running.

4) Its parts are machined with an accuracy of 1/1000 of a mm.

5) Scientifically anti-magnetic.

6) Flat and elegant watch case.

Tissot is famous on all five continents for its high quality.

Tissot’s new creation, Tissot Camping, is provided with a second inner Plexiglas cover, which gives your watch unsurpassed protection against dust, humidity, etc.

Camping movements

The movements varied from the Tissot 27B-1 calibre, manual-wind with sub-seconds, to the Tissot calibre 28-R5 automatic movement. These movements were considered dust and moisture-resistant, plus they were anti-magnetic and included Incabloc shock protection.

Tissot Visodate

The Tissot Visodate was originally released in 1953 to celebrate Tissot’s centenary, featuring a date complication in an automatic watch. This was certainly an innovative contribution to the market back then. The “Visodate” name was later paired with other models, such as the Camping, Seastar, T12 and PR 516, to indicate a date function. This also included hand-wound movements, as opposed to the automatic movements used when the Visodate launched in 1953 (Tissot Visodate at Monochrome).

Tissot calibre 27B-621

The Tissot 27B-621 is a hand-wound mechanical watch movement that was in production between 1950 and 1961. It features a sweep second function and a date display. Additionally, it features Incabloc shock protection for improved durability and reliability. It has 16 jewels, a frequency of 18,000 vph and a power reserve of 44 hours (Ranfft database). The movement is signed with the Tissot name. From the Tissot serial number on the movement, we can confidently date this watch to 1957.

This movement belongs to the Tissot calibre 27 family, which was introduced in 1936 and saw a number of variations until the early 1960s. The 27B series represents a redesign of earlier models, with the 621 version including modern features like Incabloc shock protection, a date complication and the sweep second hand. The Visodate Camping model was also available with the Tissot 28.5R-21 automatic movement.

Dial and case

The watch measures 34mm in diameter, excluding the winding crown and the lugs. The main body of the case has chrome plating, and there is some light marking, but overall, the condition is good for such an early piece. The screw-on case back is stainless steel. It states that the watch is waterproof, but as with any vintage watch, it should be kept away from water and moisture. On the inside of the back case, it is marked “Fond Acier Inoxydable CHs Tissot & Fils Swiss Made 57002-1 Carrure Lunette Plaque Or G 20 Microns”. An original signed Tissot winding crown adds to the authenticity and originality of this vintage watch. The plexiglass lens is in good condition.

The signed dial is in very good condition, indicative of a watch that has lived a sheltered life. We suspect this watch has spent much of its life hidden in a drawer… or it’s a redial? It includes the original dauphine hands, seconds sweep and roulette date display (not quickset). A “roulette date” refers to a date window where the date numbers appear in alternating red and black colours, reminiscent of a roulette wheel (Roulette Date at Watch Wiki).

Summary

This particular Tissot Visodate Camping wristwatch had been sold when we came across it, but we must be honest, it wasn’t a model on our wish list. There is very little “official” online documentation about the Visodate or Camping models. Some of the information came from translations of contemporary French advertising or unsourced comments in online forums. Most of the information above is a best guess after cross-referencing multiple sources. We are sure the Camping model was popular during the 1940s and 50s. However, unlike the Visodate, Tissot didn’t resurrect the Camping model in its modern Heritage range. We enjoyed the research, and we hope this is of some help to those owners researching their Tissot Camping wristwatch.