I’ve previously written about the fact Sir Rog wore his own Tissot while filming his first Bond film, even though he was supposed to be wearing a Rolex in the plot. And that was before product placement got its way, even getting a name check in Casino Royale.
As mentioned in that previous “A Knight’s Own” piece, the Tissot PR-516 dive style watch that I bought some years ago was only to take its bracelet off and then flip the watch on. As it happens, I rather liked it so it stayed and went on for a relatively expensive service to keep it going.
The previous article mentioned that the watch – the day+date version – had a Tissot reference of 46622 and that Roger was most likely wearing it’s date-only cousin. In the comments, I mentioned that it was a reference 44622.
Well a few years later, I saw this 44622 at an auction and, well, had to swoop.
It had the positive of being in pretty good shape dial & hands-wise, and it comes on the correct 608 stainless “president” style bracelet. The case has a nibble at 10 o’clock but that’s pretty minor when it’s being worn. Another downside is that the second hand is either a replacement or, I suspect, has been sloppily repainted.
Maybe the most significant issue is the fragile bakelite bezel – it’s been broken and glued so it doesn’t turn. I gently prised it off to give it a clean and see if I could repair it but there’s not much to do without getting involved in specialist plastic adhesives, I think.
It looks kinda funky without the bezel at all – and Marlon Brando’s bezel-free Rolex Eplorer GMT from Apocalypse Now sold for over £4m a few years back…
For the moment, I decided to put the bezel back on and put a dollop of glue over the crack just to stop it falling out. Finding a donor watch with a nicer bezel feels like an even slipperier slope than buying a watch just to take its bracelet off, and there’s not much chance of finding a NOS one that won’t cost a fortune. There are a few options on replica bezels that I might look into…
Tissot Dating
Tissot, like most watch companies, seemed to sell lots of stuff that was very much overlapping with each other. Alongside the PR-516, you had Seastars and Visodates that were very similar looking. Here’s an image from a German catalogue, regarding the 44622 and 46622:
… which translates to
TISSOT PR 516
Diver’s watch
Water-resistant to
100 m diving depth
Automatic, calendar
and day of the week
Ref. 46622
Stainless steel case
with GT bracelet
Order no. 2540 DM 230
Same model,
but without day of the week
Ref. 44622
Order no. 2538 DM 210
For reference, in 1971 (say), DM210 was about £92, or inflation adjusted about £385 today. Seems like a bargain!
It looks like hte 44622 and 46622 came out in around 1970, following on from other similar models which had aluminium bezels rather than the bakelite/plastic ones fitted here. My 46622 has a serial number which dates it to 1970, with a serial number (124xxxxx) stamped on the bridge:
According to Horological Underground, this puts it in the range of serials used for 1970 (though it’s not entirely complete – the various Tissot chronographs which use Lemania 873 movements and others, might have Lemania serial numbers on them).
The newly acquired 44622 is from 1972, as evidenced not only by a serial number (143xxxxx, in this case) but the fact that it appears on a “button” like Omega also used at the same time.
