Don’t miss the interesting design on the special Tissot-exclusive automatic rotor design. The movement isn’t too pretty to look at, but it is partially visible through the motorcycle wheel-style window through the rear of the watch, which is neat. The 5100 movement isn’t directly replicated here, but its core elements are, and for me that makes the C01.211 a bit more interesting. No longer produced today, the Lemania 5100 was a popular automatic chronograph movement found in a lot of military and sport watches up through the 1990s. The story of the movement is sort of interesting because what ETA did to accomplish this was to develop a new way to produce the basic architecture of a fan favorite historic movement known as the Lemania 5100. It is known as the ETA caliber C01.211 and it is less expensive to manufacture than the ETA Valjoux 7750. Inside the Tissot T-Race MotoGP 2020 Automatic Chronograph is a movement that you will not find outside of the Swatch Group, which is produced by ETA. Detailing around the crown and pushers is nice, along with good overall fit and finish. The case itself is water resistant to 100 meters, and produced from steel, with some sections of the case (such as the middle) with a matte black PVD coating. The 22mm-wide strap and overall wide proportions makes the T-Race Automatic Chronograph feel big, but the moving lugs and the high-quality rubber strap make it wear snugly without floating around on your wrist. Though that doesn’t take into consideration the articulating lugs, which really help the T-Race case and strap fit neatly over most all wrists. It also has a roughly 49mm lug-to-lug distance, which isn’t that bad, actually. The case is 45mm-wide by about 16.5mm-thick. And that says a lot given its hefty size and mass. You either love or hate the T-Race Automatic Chronograph case, but it is undeniably comfortable. Oddly, the magnifier doesn’t magnify too much - a bit more would have been welcome, especially to justify the mass on the crystal. I am pretty sure Cartier started this design tradition on the Roadster, but it has been a signature part of the T-Race, along with the brake rotor-style bezel, for as long as I can remember. One of the oddities of the T-Race case (which has never seemed to go away) is the caliper-style crown guard that merges with the magnifier on the sapphire crystal over the date. Around the dial is the requisite tachymeter scale, and the visible and well-sized hands are all Tissot in aesthetic DNA. Then, you have the very light level of texture inside the subdials. That gives the dial a welcome sense of depth. First, the hour markers are applied while the subdials are slightly recessed. Tissot really pulled back from some of the less traditional design elements on the dial and preferred to go with some more simple yet satisfying methods to make a dial look nice. This is, in my opinion, one of the better T-Race watch dials so far. Not a bad thing, and it gives the watch a more of a bold, timeless, yet clearly sporty look to it. While not a direct emulation, to me, the MotoGP 2020 version of the T-Race Automatic Chronograph seems inspired by some Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore dials.
Tissot and MotoGP are still going strong, and the MotoGP 2020 T-Race watch is familiar but a bit of a fresh take on the theme. I also later learned, directly from the man himself, that Brad Pitt is an enthusiastic MotoGP fan. For me, it was a total validation of when watch marketing and consumer interest aligns properly. To this day, I wonder what Tissot was doing right to communicate to all those fans about the watches. Not only was the Tissot name represented on signage, but also on wrists. What also surprised me is how many Tissot T-Race watches I saw on wrists as I wandered through the crowds. Tissot is wise to sponsor the sport, especially because the fans make such sense given Tissot’s price-point relevancy to them. I’d been to the track before and have gone since, and never was it as crowded as on MotoGP day. The venue was the Laguna Seca racetrack near Monterey, CA, and it was summer hot. When I think of the Tissot T-Race - a watch with design cues specifically meant to evoke a motorcycle wheel - I think of the time that I joined Tissot to one of the MotoGP races. I look at one of the most recent versions, which is the limited edition of 3,333 pieces Tissot T-Race MotoGP 2020 Automatic Chronograph reference T115.427.27.057.00.
To celebrate and support its ongoing relationship with the MotoGP motorcycle racing series, Swiss Tissot continues its tradition of making regular limited-edition watches within its longstanding T-Race collection.
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