Tissot Quartz F1, circa 1978-9
Tissot have a long sponsor history with Formula One that still is going strong today. The Tissot Quartz F1 watch was Tissot’s first F1 watch. It has a high technology quartz movement with 4 jewels and it also has gears unlike the plastic affairs you get in todays 
quartz watches. The calibre is a 2031, and setting the time on this watch is totally unique to this calibre.. Hours are set by pulling the crown out and turning as normal but the mins are set by pushing the crown in and holding for five seconds , then releasing and pushing back in again . The mins hand then starts whizzing around on its own until you release the crown. Also the second hand can be fine tuned by repeatedly pushing the crown in and letting go which rapidly advances it or just holding the crown in to make the second hand stop until you desire it to start again.
The watch would have originally had the stepped out case greyed out, like the image below.
The gray/charcoal paint was already removed when I purchased my watch, I may consider restoring it at a later date. I concieve in the above image the paint looks black, but it is not it is more a charcoal colour, but the shade makes the appearance seem black at certain angles.
Mario Andretti’s 1979 Lotus F1 car sponsored by Tissot, in 1978 he won the F1 World championship for Lotus.
Currently the original crystal has sustained a nasty scratch over its 40 year life, I am unable to source one so I am in the process of getting a custom mineral crystal made. I will update the pictures in due time to do a before and after comparison.
Click here to download a PDF parts catalogue for the calibre 2031
Coming soon a Racing Tag Heuer 240.306 dual chronograph pro 200m diver and a Heuer mechanical dual stopwatch, watch this space for links.
