PRX

The PRX was born in 1978 as a quartz sports watch, with a name that according to industry sources takes the initials of "Precise" and "Robust", to which the X is added — the Roman numeral for ten, indicating the guaranteed 10 bar (100 metres) of water resistance. The barrel-shaped case with faceted surfaces and the integrated bracelet with wide, flexible links belong to the steel sports-luxe trend opened a few years earlier by models such as the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak (1972), but at a far more accessible price thanks precisely to the quartz movement, which in 1978 was still a technologically advanced choice.

The name follows the same "PR" naming logic already used by Tissot for other rugged, water-resistant models of the 1960s and '70s (including the 1965 PR 516): the sources consulted do not agree, however, on a direct, documented link between the two names, and on this point we simply note the similarity of name without asserting a definite lineage. In any case the PRX had a relatively short commercial life: it went out of production in the early 1980s, probably due in part to competition from Japanese digital watches, which were rapidly conquering the market at the time.

The model remained forgotten for more than forty years until, in his first week as Tissot CEO in 2020, Sylvain Dolla discovered an original PRX in the brand's archives and decided to relaunch it: the official return came in February 2021 with the PRX 40 quartz version, followed shortly by the Powermatic 80 automatic variant, which exceeded all sales expectations to the point — according to the company — of requiring a twentyfold increase in the production originally planned.