Wristwatches · Wristwatch
Tissot Mediostat, 1940s
- Maker / attribution
- Tissot (maker)
- Date
- 1940s
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Object type
- Wristwatch
- Dimensions
- Case 34 mm
- Stock no.
- Product 787189203031
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, S.Song Watches (product 787189203031)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Tissot Mediostat (English)
View the source record (dealer listing) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by S.Song Watches (dealer), Seattle (stock number Product 787189203031), this is a wristwatch by Tissot, made in Switzerland, dated 1940s. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Wristwatches collection. Recorded dimensions: Case 34 mm. The record is illustrated with 6 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Dealer description — S.Song Watches
I’m going to begin by saying that vintage Tissot is highly underrated as they made some very interesting and high-quality pieces. For instance, the example today. The Tissot Mediostat is a very unusual watch and one that makes vintage watch collecting so much fun. This is not your typical mono-pusher chronograph. This watch was actually developed as a doctors watch- hence the name ‘Mediostat’. It was for timing and measuring various patient tests and features a continuous running chronograph hand. There are two functions of the watch- a half press of the chronograph pusher stops the seconds hand and a full press resets it to 0 where the hand starts to run again. Housed in a 34mm stainless steel case, this is somewhat similar to the Longines Chronostop in the sense that it is one of the few watches with a continuous running chronograph hand. With a silver dial that has aged beautifully, developing a champagne tone and Arabic numerals filled with luminous Radium, this is a highly unusual watch that shows that you do not need to break the bank to enjoy something truly rare and interesting in the vintage watch world.
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
The wristwatch overtook the pocket watch. Military use in the First World War, aviation, water-resistant cases (1926), automatic winding (1923–31), rectangular Art Deco designs and early chronographs and calendars defined the period.
Read the period in the timelineMore wristwatches from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Wristwatches
Bracelet watches were worn by women from the early nineteenth century — Breguet made one for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, in 1810–12 — but the wristwatch only became a man's instrument with military use and aviation in the early twentieth century. Between the World Wars it overtook the pocket watch; the 1920s and 1930s brought rectangular Art Deco cases, water-resistant cases and the first automatic winding systems.
After 1945 the wristwatch became a carrier of identity — dress watches, sports and dive watches, chronographs, calendars — produced by Swiss, American, Japanese, German, Soviet and Chinese industries. The quartz revolution after 1969 and the mechanical renaissance since the 1990s, including the rise of independent watchmakers, complete the story.
What to look for
- The reference number (between the lugs or inside the case back) and serial number, the starting point for dating.
- The calibre: its maker and number are often stamped under the dial or on the bridge.
- Originality of dial, hands and crown — refinished ('redial') dials are common.
- Case material marks: 18K/750, 14K/585, stainless steel, gold-filled, plated.
Dating clues
- Wire-lug cases: before c. 1925.
- Water-resistant screw-down cases: from 1926.
- Quartz movements: from 1969; sapphire crystals widespread after c. 1980.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
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