Jewelry Creations is excited to be among the first US retailers to bring to you the all new (to the US market anyway) T-Touch Connected Solar Watch. This new watch from Tissot is packed with high-tech features and connects to your phone to display status alerts such as call and text message alerts. And the best part? It's solar powered, so it doesn't have to sit and charge every day. It's ready whenever you are!
The 47mm T-Touch watches are made from titanium, which is ultra-light, strong, and even hypo-allergenic. The bezel is made of ultra-durable nearly scratch-proof ceramic, and the crystal is made of scratch resistant sapphire. The watch is water-resistant to a pressure of 10-bar (approximately 330 ft) so yes, go ahead and hop in the shower, hit the lake, or track that triathlon!
One of the best features of the watch is a stroke of engineering marvel from Tissot. They paired the latest technology photovoltaic cells (solar power) with a highly energy efficient operating system (OS). Tissot spent years developing this OS to conserve battery life and all that hard work has paid off.
The watch will hold a charge for up to ten years when not paired with a phone, and up to 6 months when paired with your phone (or more, depending on the amount of light it gets). You read that right, SIX MONTHS when paired! Gone are the days of having battery anxiety with your connected watch! No more juggling chargers on the road.
This watch with the red strap is the one that I own. As you can see the top three-quarters of the watch are solar cells. The bottom one-quarter portion of the dial is the Memory In Pixel (MIP) screen. The MIP is a highly-legible screen where you will see things like phone status alerts, and display functions such as date, chronograph, lap/split, digital menus, etc.
What I love about this watch is that it is just that - first and foremost a watch. It doesn't look like the calculator watch of the '80s. It looks like an actual watch that just happens to have really advanced technology built into it such as: perpetual calendar, countdown, chronograph, alarm, weather, activity tracking, barometric pressure, altimeter, alerts from the phone, and much more - even your favorite NBA team scores!
The T-Touch was developed by Swatch Group in collaboration with CSEM. The SwALPS operating system, and the movement (electronics in this case), are fully Swiss made. The watch is compatible with iOS, Android, and soon, Harmony OS operating systems.
It was important to Tissot that this watch be Swiss-made, and that's why they spent such a long time bringing it to market. They wanted to ensure that it met the exceedingly high standards of the Swatch Group, and the greater Swiss watch community.
There are a few ways to interact with the watch - first the watch itself has three multi-function buttons. Second, you can touch on the crystal at different parts of the dial, and lastly, with the Tissot T-Touch app. This app can be downloaded for free from the Apple iOS or Android Play stores.
When using the watch to control functions there are two push-buttons, and a digital crown that is multi-purpose - it spins to navigate menus and also has a push button for confirmation of commands.
We've found that the easiest way to setup the watch is to first get the Tissot T-Touch app, create an account with Tissot, and then enter all the required information. Once you get your watch you can connect it to the app (which will use Bluetooth to communicate). The app will automatically program the watch with all your data that you just entered into the app.
And if you're concerned about privacy with your Tissot account, don't be. Tissot has confirmed that none of your account information is shared outside of Tissot with any third party.
If you choose to not connect the watch to the app, that's no problem. When you first start up the watch and it asks to connect to your phone just select no and the watch will walk you through the prompts to enter your vitals (height, weight) so that it can activate the step tracking and other features.
One important thing to consider when connecting your watch to your phone is whether to set up a password to unlock it or not. If you choose to not set up a password, then anyone can press the start button for about a second and the watch unlocks.
With a password, that you create at setup or in configuration, you create your own sequence of presses on the crystal at the 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00 and 10:00 positions. For now, I've chosen not to do the password, but I'm feeling it might be a little easier to tap a few times on the crystal to unlock the phone. And obviously, if you set a password, no one else can get at the info stored on your watch.
Let's get to the fun stuff! Once your watch is setup you can press on the crystal to access various functions. Here's the “quick and dirty” rundown:
- 12:00 - "METEO" - Barometric pressure and temperature
- 2:00 - "Activity" - Steps, Altimeter, Outdoor Tracker
- 4:00 - "Connected" - Notification, Find My Phone, NBA scores and next game
- 6:00 - "T-Touch" - Settings, Solar Energy Level, Battery Level, and Quick Settings
- 8:00 - "Timing" - Chrono, Timer, Alarm
- 10:00 - "Navigation" – Compass
You'll learn some other shortcuts along the way, such as swiping down from 12:00 to 6:00 to quickly lock the watch. The ability to tap the crystal to access functions makes the interface really simple to learn.
Here's an overview of the buttons:
- Start Button - Push to start/stop chronograph or countdown, hold down to lock or unlock
- Back Button - Back to previous screen, record a chronograph (lap), load a countdown
- Crown - Confirm selection, open sub-menu, turn to navigate menu, hold to activate back-lighting
The feature that I enjoy most is the status alerts. When I'm sitting with friends, or just watching TV with the phone across the room and I get a call or text my watch gives a buzz. I can take a quick look at it without the intrusion of grabbing my phone, opening it up and distracting myself from the conversation at-hand. I can see if it's an important call or text and choose to ignore it, or read it. I can even read incoming emails right on the watch. It's super convenient!
The video above shows how the incoming messages work. In this case I'm receiving an email. When the alert comes in the hour and minute hand move to 9:00 and 3:00 to get out of the way of the MIP screen, which shows the alert. I click the crown wheel to acknowledge the message and I then use the crown wheel to scroll through and read the email. When the email is complete it asks if I want to clear it. I press the crown to acknowledge clear. FYI, clearing it on the watch does not mark it as read in your inbox but does clear it from your home screen status, which is pretty handy.
We understand there were a lot of patents filed because of this watch, and we could go on and on about the technical wizardry involved in creating it, but who cares really? The bottom line is that it's a really cool watch with loads of awesome features - and that's all I need to know!
There are a whole lot of layers that you get to know real quick when using the watch, and we would be happy to give you the full run-down next time you pop in the store to get you started. Feel free to come on down and I’ll show you how everything works, and I'll even help you pair your phone to your very own T-Touch.