Tissot built its factory along Le Locle’s Chemin des Tourelles in 1907, where it still remains. The street’s significance to Tissot has spawned this eponymous timepiece, the Chemin des Tourelles Skeleton, which showcases the brand’s watchmaking expertise.

The Chemin des Tourelles Skeleton is a simple three hand watch with its small seconds at nine o’clock. The timepiece features openworking, beginning with an absent dial and a skeletonised chapter ring upon which rose gold indexes have been applied. This carries over to the hand-winding ETA 6497-1 movement within the watch, but not to the extent of creating an airy, minimalist aesthetic. Instead, it is part of a larger repertoire of decorative techniques that Tissot has employed within this watch. On the dial side, the base plate has been reduced, but not drastically. Tissot has opted to keep the untouched sections of the base plate symmetrical wherever possible, and finished them with perlage. Other major components of the movement such as its wheels have also undergone sunburst, linear, or even just flat matte finishing – one would be hard pressed to find an unfinished part. The view through the see-through case back reveals a similar treatment: only parts of the bridges have been skeletonised, which leaves a large canvass for Tissot to apply finishing techniques. The result is a mix of textures both on the front and back of the watch, which creates much visual interest despite the confinement of materials to just various metals.

Skeletonisation and finishing aside, the Chemin des Tourelles Skeleton is also eye-catching for its use of colours. Its hands, screws and indexes are of blued steel to complement the rose gold case, and silver-toned nickel and steel of the movement, while brass wheels and jewels round out the colour palette.