Author Topic: Tissot Seastar 1000 Chronograph Review  (Read 11390 times)

Offline Jeffrey8891

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Tissot Seastar 1000 Chronograph Review
« on: December 05, 2012, 08:34:30 AM »
My obsession for watch was long gone after I bought a Seiko Chronograph 6 years back. I like the watch a lot and it satisfies me that I stopped looking for other watches. Back then, I still have a few pieces of Casio that eventually died few years into their respectively life. My interest in watch is still intact all along but I just don't have the cash in flow to make any purchase.

Things have changed, now that I am in my higher education with a scholarship and full loan, along with the exposure of new brands of watches including the likes of Steinhart from Germany and Christopher Ward from London, it sparks my need to get a new watch. I get into the knowledge of movement as well, getting to know the magic of mechanical watches. In this year alone, I have purchased a Tissot Quadratto which I have reviewed it in this post: http://www.malaysiawatchforum.com/index.php/topic,5690.0.html and an Ingersoll Boonville - a skeleton mechanical watches. I did not do a review on that because I have encountered countless issue with that watch. Within the week of my purchase, the hour hand and the second hands crash with each other, with the hour hand bend. I went back to my AD and the replace me with another AFTER 2 WEEKS. Months later, it produces dust like powder within the case itself. Of course, again I went back to the AD and they agree to have it check and remove the dust inside the case. Without any surprise, the process took almost 3 weeks. What I didn't expect is that although the dust is being cleared away and the crystal wipe cleaned (previously with a layer of oil), there was a small leaf like thingy sticking onto the crystal. I gave up, I ask the AD to just open up the caseback and clean it now. As a result of their poor work, there is now dust inside the case again.

Going for my third watch in 2012, I am looking for a mechanical watch. It has to be unique and it has to be swiss made. All along, I was aiming for the Christopher Ward C60 Trident. It has a very unique look and at the price of RM 1719, it is reasonable as a mechanical watch. If you are familiar with Christopher Ward, you will know that they produces watches of tremendous quality. In fact, they do have their own in house movement for their limited edition watches. I went ahead and ordered the watch from their website - it is the only way to buy their watch. Unfortunately, my order is cancelled due to unknown reason and due to this my cash was floating because of a pre-authorised payment. I called maybank and they confirmed that I will get my refund after 16 WORKING DAYS. Frustrated, I made an international call to C. Ward to inquire about the issue. After the phone call, I decided that to give up this watch at the moment, maybe fate between me and the watch has yet to come.

Finally, I stumble onto this watch - Tissot Seastar 1000 at a local AD. It caught my attention because it has similar specs with the C60. Both are divers watch with 300m water resistant, both runs on ETA 2824-2, both at 42mm diameter and it has a unique design like the C60. Being excited, I tried it on, only to find that it is too small for me. I don't know what's with it, but I guess maybe it is due to the thin bezel. The sales person introduce me to its big brother, the Tissot Seastar 1000 Chrono. I knew about this watch all along but at 48mm diameter, I thought it was too large for me. Out of curiosity, I just put it on. To my surprise, the first thing that I notice is that it sits more comfortable than any other watches that I have tried before and given its large size, I was amazed. Below is a shot, taken with my phone:



I have it for almost a month now and here is what I think about it.

Face/Dial:
What Tissot did with the face was to put it simple. In my opinion, the reason of size increase from the non-chrono to the chrono is to accommodate the three subdials. The increase in size make it less crowded that would have been if the face is smaller. Another reason is to accommodate the larger movement that it runs on. The lume is not superb but however adequate, with longer lasting than my other watches. It is however, not as bright as my Seiko's when it is fully charged. All the dots on the face is lumed as well as the numerals of 12 and 6. These lumes are not as bright as the lume on the hands, which is brighter and last longer. Colour of the lume matches the colour scheme of the watch, that is blueish with a slight of hue. The dot on the bezel is also lumed but the colour is green, different from the rest. Here is a lume shot taken with my phone:



From the picture, you can also see that the seconds hand for time keeping at the hour 9 subdials is also lumed.

Case:
The case is not made out of fancy metal like titanium or silver, it is just stainless steel. The back of the case features an exhibition caseback where you can see the movement and the rotor.



You can see that the movement is somewhat like a bead-blasted finish without any stripes. Fortunately, the rotor is decorated making it at least an appeal to look at it. To match its diamter, the case height is over 17mm which you could have seen from previous pictures. At its side, it compromise of both brushed and polished surface. On the left of the case, there is an automatic helium relieve valve and with wordings indicating it.



The right side of the case of course houses the two pushers for chrono function and the crown which are all screw downs. The pushers are held by plastic cap like screw down where you need to unscrew to make use of the chrono function.



The crown is signed with Tissot's logo on it with small cutting around for grip. I find the grip is enough for unscrewing and screwing but could be better. As you can see, the Tissot's logo is straight up when the crown is fully screwed down which I think it a nice touch. The crowns unscrew to its first position which enable you to manually wind the movement. Pull it a little further to its second position, it allows you to change the date of the watch. Finally the last position allows you to set the time. Screwing the crown back then is fairly easy by applying pressure to it until you feel that it catches the groove and you can just turn it like usual until it tightens.

Bezel:
The unidirectional bezel of the watch plays an important role in giving it the unique looks that it has. Compared to many watches, it  has a thin bezel with raised markings that is brushed. Although this means that it cannot be lumed but you can feel the markings giving that it raised from the insert.



The bezel is also very sturdy with the right amount of force required to rotate it. Not light that it feels cheap and not too rigid that you might think it is stuck. The sounds that it makes when it rotates also give me a sense that it is well built.

Movement:
ETA 7750 Valjoux is a well known movement for mechanical chronographs movement, in fact a lot of entry level expensive watches are based on this very movement. Unfortunately, this is not the movement that is beating in the case. The movement that runs in this model is calibre C01.211 which is also an ETA movement that lacks a few features that the 7750 has. First thing that you will notice that there is no day indicator on the movement, only date indicator whereby the day indicator is present on 7750. The chronograph can only run until 6 hours count on this movement while the 7750 can go another 6 hours. The 7750 beats at a faster rate than the C01.211. The movement has less jewels at 15 only with least crucial part of the movement made out of plastic of high quality. All of these does not bother me giving its price - RM 3,000 after discount, what bother me is that the movement is widely used in Swatch's chronograph. Sadly, my pocket is not deep enough for me to change this because Tissot did released another model Seastar 1000 Valjoux Professional which from the name is self-explanatory. That, my fellow friends, cost twice as much as this model.

Strap:
The watch comes with either the rubber strap that I have or a bracelet. I got the one with the rubber strap because of three reason. First, it looks better with the rubber strap with Seastar markings on it while the bracelet's look just doesn't blend with the watch. Second, the rubber straps wear more comfortable on my small wrist compared to the bracelet one. Finally, the watch is heavy as it is, with the bracelet, the weight is too much for my liking. The only concern I have now is that the rubber can be torn eventually and I will need a replacement in the future depending on how well it copes with wear and tear. Not wanting to look for third party strap means I have to order one now so that I don't face problem finding it a few years later when I really need one.

Verdict:
In short, the watch is well built with its own character and unique in its own way. I hope you enjoy reading this.

Offline Cwlwatch

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Re: Tissot Seastar 1000 Chronograph Review
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2012, 08:45:12 AM »
Nice watch Mann..... I also likes this one... The price is just so fairly to own... Wear in good health...

Offline am_sober

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Re: Tissot Seastar 1000 Chronograph Review
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2012, 11:01:53 AM »
Nice watch~!  :thumbsup:
interesting review~!  :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
"People who says it cannot be done, should not interrupt those who are doing it~ ^^Y"

Offline meoramri

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Re: Tissot Seastar 1000 Chronograph Review
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2012, 12:45:21 PM »
Good write up!
Main watch blog visit: http://easternwatch.blogspot.com

Offline Jeffrey8891

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Re: Tissot Seastar 1000 Chronograph Review
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2012, 01:12:07 PM »
Hi guys, thank you for reading my post. My next watch would be something even more unique than this. I find it looking for the perfect watch from various brands time consuming and always without results. I am hoping to have a custom made watch through modification of Seiko Skx007.

Offline kenixck

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Re: Tissot Seastar 1000 Chronograph Review
« Reply #5 on: December 06, 2012, 04:26:30 PM »
 :thumbsup: wear in good health ! i personally like this model very much but wished it was a 44 - 46mm

Offline Laktos Kid

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Re: Tissot Seastar 1000 Chronograph Review
« Reply #6 on: December 06, 2012, 11:36:34 PM »
very detailed review  :thumbsup: really nice watch too, but i prefer the non chrono version with orange markers instead of blue. But nonetheless great review and enjoy this lovely watch  :)

Offline Jeffrey8891

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Re: Tissot Seastar 1000 Chronograph Review
« Reply #7 on: December 12, 2012, 09:19:29 AM »
:thumbsup: wear in good health ! i personally like this model very much but wished it was a 44 - 46mm

I prefer the same range of diameter you mentioned too. If the non-chrono of Seastar 1000 is in any of the size range I would have get that instead.

Offline Tommygun

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Re: Tissot Seastar 1000 Chronograph Review
« Reply #8 on: December 15, 2012, 09:20:24 PM »
Hi

Thanks great review
I really like the look and size of this watch and am looking to add it to my collection
Can you tell me how is the accuracy of the watch over one day and one week ?
Many thanks

Offline Jeffrey8891

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Re: Tissot Seastar 1000 Chronograph Review
« Reply #9 on: December 17, 2012, 05:06:43 AM »
Hi

Thanks great review
I really like the look and size of this watch and am looking to add it to my collection
Can you tell me how is the accuracy of the watch over one day and one week ?
Many thanks

Hi,

Thanks for reading. The watch is currently running +5 to +7 secs a day. I did not record up to a week because I am rotating with other watches so sometime it may stop.

Offline Cocas

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Re: Tissot Seastar 1000 Chronograph Review
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2017, 10:51:14 AM »
Your Tissot 1000m diver is very special. It's now discontinued.

Congrats!