Tissot C263 quartz watch

Today, it's a Swiss watch for a change with another model by Tissot.

This watch seems to be a model C263 and has this number on the back and at the bottom of the dial. It has 3 hands, but they are arranged in a 2 hand main dial with a small seconds hand dial in the bottom half. It has a slim case in gold colour with only a thin bezel around the dial. The dial itself is very uncluttered with a white face and simple gold hour markers. The only other things on the face are the Tissot name, and the text "C 263 Swiss".

Tissot is a Swiss watch manufacturer which started as a family business in 1853. They have become well known as a luxury brand, and have had many firsts over the years.

This model looks like it is one of their earlier quartz models, and that would suggest a 70s or 80s date, but that is just an educated guess.

Tissot Rock Watch

I've blogged watches made from all kinds of material so far. There's been plastic, rubber, metal, wood, and even cheese protein, but this is the first one made of stone.

The watch is by the Swiss watch manufacturer Tissot. They are a luxury watchmaker started in 1853 as a family company. They have had a lot of firsts - first mass produced pocket watch, first anti-magnetic watch, first plastic mechanical watch, first mother of pearl watch, and first wood watch (as well as the first stone watch).

The case of the watch is made of alpine granite, which is a hard igneous rock, and has a green marbled look. It has polished rounded edges, and the face is mounted inside a concave cutout on the front with inset glass. The Swiss quartz module is fixed inside the back of the stone and covered with a screw fixed metal plate. It has a two hand dial display, with red and yellow hands.

There is a model number on the back, and this one is R150 901-7.

The Tissot Rock Watch first came out in 1985, and was the first ever watch made of stone (assuming no one had made a portable stone sundial at some point in history). They stopped production of the watches in the early 90s.

Lanco Mechanical Jump-Hour

Although I have a large watch collection, I don't have too many Swiss mechanical watches. But today's watch is one of the few!

The watch is by Lanco, which was the most well known brand of the Swiss Uhrenfabrik Langendorf SA watch Company (hence LanCo). The company started in 1890, and the Lanco brand was launched in the late 1950s and then was revived in 1970s, being merged into the Omega-Tissot group in 1971. Production of full Lanco watches stopped in 1973 (as other manufacturers movements were used after this time) . This particular watch is one of the 1970s models, and appears to be after the merger as the buckle shows the capital T which was one of the older Tissot S.A logos.

It is a true jump hour watch, with the hour marker staying still until 2 minutes before the hour change, finally clicking into the new hour on the exact time. The minutes dial is constantly rotating.

It is powered by a 1 jewel mechanical movement by Agon Chromatic Watch Corp, and is designed to be shock resistant. Agon Chromatic Watch Corp (aka Agon SA, or Agon Watch Co)  were a private label watch manufacturer from the early 50s to the mid 70s. It was founded by the Triebold family (mainly by Eddie and Othmar, but possibly started in the 30s by their father) in Mumpf, making a large number (it seems maybe millions) of watches and movements. In 1971 the company was taken over by SSIH (the core of today's Swatch Corp), but stopped in the mid 70s when cheap quartz movements came out.

If the items above work out, this watch must have been made between 1973 and around 75/76 as the T on the strap suggests after 71, and the use of a non-Lanco movement, after 73, but must have been before the mid 70s when Agon SA stopped production. So it is actually part Lanco, part Omega/Tissot, and part Swatch!

There is a number 12742 on the back, and as I've seen others with the same number, I assume this is the model number. I don't know the original sale price, but I've seen this on eBay for around £200/$300.