# Tissot Rockwatches



## Neptune (Jun 30, 2010)

Hi from Australia

I have 8 Tissot rockwatches and would be keen to hear any details that anyone might have on them, i.e. what years were they made, what stones were used (other than jasper, granite, marble and basalt, which I know about). There doesn't seem to be a lot of published information about them - can you point me towards some if you know of any?.

Mine are 2 jaspers (R151), 3 black/white/grey speckled granites, one green granite, one black granite and one that seems to be a mixture of calcite, quartz, limestone and lapis (all R150).

Neptune


----------



## AbingtonLad (Sep 8, 2008)

Any minute now someone is going to say "We need pictures!"

Oh they just have.


----------



## feenix (May 27, 2008)

The original Rockwatch was sold from December 1985 on the US market and the official date for the launch of the Swiss sales to start was 15th March of 1986

The â€˜rockâ€™ for the manufacture of these special timepieces was essentially mined from the Alps, in the Grison, Ticino and Valais areas. Each area having its own distinctive colouration. Alternate stone was used later to vary the look of the watch and bracelets, (Blue lace agate, Scandinavian basalt, jasper from the Kalahari Desert, quartz crystal, pink Rhodonite from Australia, aventurine and blue sodalite from Brazil and even clamophyllia coral petrified from the prehistoric Jura mountains).

Original models had red and yellow hands. These colours were chosen to signify the colour of the markers used to mark the Swiss walking trails. Later models had blue/green hands, with some of the Pearlwatches having the gold coloured hands as seen on the Woodwatches.

The Pearlwatch was released onto the market in 1988.

The Rockwatch and Pearlwatch were sold in three different sizes, R140 woman size (approximate size 23 mm not including crown), R150 unisex size (approximate size 30 mm not including crown) and R151 man size (approximate size 33 mm not including crown).

The wood watch was sold in two different sizes to the best of my knowledge, the W150 (approximate size 33 mm not including crown) and W151 (approximate size 39 mm not including crown).

The W195 model is a limited edition version of the W151 (approximate size 39 mm not including crown).

The Woodwatch was released onto the market in 1989 with a limited edition â€˜specialâ€™ of 999 pieces designed by Barbara Seiler featuring paper silhouettes to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation (1291 to 1991). These models feature a cutout Swiss scene picture on the dial of the briar-wood. The series was supplemented by a run of 10,000 miniature pieces with mechanically cutout silhouettes from brass or tin.

The wood used to manufacture these modes was Mediterranean briar-wood. The wood would then be coloured in a variety of colours, allowing for a variety of colours from almost honey coloured to dark ebony looking colours, and every colour in-between, Iâ€™ve seen examples of red, green, browns and more myself.

There is one final model, the Gold-rush. Although listed as a Rockwatch, it was slightly smaller than the the R150 midsize model and was made of solid gold, not rock, with the hallmark on the dial, at the 12 O'clock mark.

And now some pictures (I never get sick of these watches;

Three sizes of Rockwatch










Stone bracelet










'Pearl' Rockwatch










Skeletonized Rockwatch


----------



## feenix (May 27, 2008)

And some more pictures;

Wider shot of stone braclet model










Marble inset dial










Coral inset dial










Light coloured stone


----------



## feenix (May 27, 2008)

Few more pictures;

Green stone










Multi-coloured stone (also known as harlequin colour)










White marble










On a final note, the movement utilised in these watches is the same, regardless the size of the case. Tissot made use of the ETA 976.001, a quartz movement limited to high end watches. Although the Center shaft and cannon pinion are slightly longer than standard to allow for the additional thickness of the dial.


----------



## feenix (May 27, 2008)

And finally, for now at least, a few pictures of the wood watches, as I've mentioned them earlier;

Standard Woodwatch










Woodwatch with brass insert










Woodwatch with tin insert










Limited edition watch with applied paper cut-out


----------



## Neptune (Jun 30, 2010)

AbingtonLad said:


> Any minute now someone is going to say "We need pictures!"
> 
> Oh they just have.


I might be able to do that if there were even the tiniest piece of information on this site telling me how to do it. The "picture" icon on a posting does absolutely nothing except throw up a useless, non-functioning input box .....


----------



## feenix (May 27, 2008)

Neptune said:


> AbingtonLad said:
> 
> 
> > Any minute now someone is going to say "We need pictures!"
> ...


This site doesn't allow for direct upload with pictures (due to bandwidth costs I'd guess). You'll need to upload any pictures you want on the site to a third party site like Photobucket.com

After you've uploaded them in photobucket you will see a link that starts and ends with image tags, copy this link and simply paste it into your post here. Failing that email your pictures to me and I'll host and post them here for you whilst you get to grips with the system. [email protected]


----------



## dobra (Aug 20, 2009)

First class article Feenix, and the images are a great help. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a stone watch in a charity shop for Â£4.99, and in brand new condition. It only has Bosch and logo (my ols company 500 years ago)at three o'clock, and yellow, red and white hands. The stone is black and grey mottled, and the crown has a small black stone in the centre.

The back is a flat SS plate, with three screws and two holes (for what). The black leather strap fits onto two flattened "Y" pieces. Sorry no piccies, but am trying to grapple with Dropbox sky photostore! :thumbsdown:

Mike


----------



## Redwolf (Jun 15, 2010)

I love the wooden ones, not too keen on t he rock though.


----------



## feenix (May 27, 2008)

Bluestifford said:


> I love the wooden ones, not too keen on t he rock though.


Each to their own. I like the Rockwatches myself, I only collect the Woodwatches to sort of complete my collection, with the exception of the Woodwatch that has the paper-cutout. That one took me a couple of years to track down.


----------



## Griff (Feb 23, 2003)

Like mint watches myself :goof:


----------



## feenix (May 27, 2008)

Here are Neptune's pictures, and very nice they are too, I particularly like the one with the hint of blue in it(the first one);





































More to follow .................


----------



## feenix (May 27, 2008)

And the rest of Neptune's pictures;



















Nice collection you have there Neptune, you still need some Pearl models though and of course to start collecting the wood models, fortunately the wood ones tend to be a little cheaper.

One word of warning though, these watches are robust, but they can crack if banged on a hard surface (certain parts of the dial are almost paper thin), take care when wearing them.


----------



## dobra (Aug 20, 2009)

A feast for the eyes!

Mike


----------



## Neptune (Jun 30, 2010)

feenix said:


> And the rest of Neptune's pictures;
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks for posting those for me, feenix. I haven't noticed the fragility of the rockwatches myself, but possibly because I'm a pretty careful sort of dude. I've had one of my jaspers (not the one in the picture) since the early 1990s and it is still effectively mint, despite having been my number one watch for about 18 years. All of the other 7 have been acquired from EBay in the last few months once I realised they were out there. And thanks for the info on the stones and the history of the rockwatches - it roughly quadrupled the knowledge I previously had.

Neptune


----------



## The Canon Man (Apr 9, 2010)

Thanks for posting these.

I always loved these, they where out of my price range at the time, and the fact that each one was unique scared me away from buying one, as I kept seeing ones with slightly different rock formations and I just knew I'd see one I liked better as soon as I'd handed over my hard earned.


----------



## kevkojak (May 14, 2009)

Fantastic post, feenix's knowledge of these is amazing!

I've been trying to add one or two of these to my collection for ages - they pop up on e.bay battered and bruised quite regularly and seem to sell for Â£20-Â£30, usually in need of a battery, a glass and some TLC.

I have seen quite a lot for sale over the pond in the USA, but the prices are astronomical and then overseas postage charges stack up too. Any reason they'd be so much more expensive over there?

For now I shall continue to hunt about!


----------



## feenix (May 27, 2008)

kevkojak said:


> Any reason they'd be so much more expensive over there?


Simply that it's a bigger market, with more collectors.


----------



## kevkojak (May 14, 2009)

feenix said:


> kevkojak said:
> 
> 
> > Any reason they'd be so much more expensive over there?
> ...


Simple answer to a simple question I suppose. They seem to have more variety in the colours too, is that just because, as its a bigger market, they got more of the less common colours (green + blue rock etc)?


----------



## feenix (May 27, 2008)

kevkojak said:


> They seem to have more variety in the colours too, is that just because, as its a bigger market, they got more of the less common colours (green + blue rock etc)?


I'd think that the green is one of the more common colours, only surpassed by the grey ones. The blue one are by no means rare, I think its simply that its one of the more desirable colours, the same with the black ones.

If I had to list which were the rare ones I'd say the Goldrush, closely followed by the skeleton model, fossilized coral, the jasper ones, then the Pearl ones. I've still to acquire a Goldrush or coral fossil myself.

Of course the there are rarer models, the stone bracelet is scarce and sells for a premium and the different inset stones can be difficult to acquire as well.

As for the wood watches, the paper cutouts, followed by the metal cutouts, followed by the green wood, then the red wood.


----------

