The Tissot PRS 516 chronograph

I was looking in my favourite chain of Perth jewellers and looking at different timepieces that I normally seek. The retail assistant, her name is Suan and she was born in Kuala Lumpur and she had some ideas for me to look at that would suit a young male with an interest in motor sports.

I was looking at a timepiece for my nephew while he still had a year until his eighteenth birthday. His grandparents purchased a watch for him when be began high school and it hasn't been a real success. He really doesn't respect the effort required to earn the money to purchase any goods or services and has a history of losing, dropping, stepping on, submersing in water or breaking any item of value although he would deny this.

His watch, purchased for high school by his grandparents has been broken on multiple occasions, lost a couple of times although his grandfather did go back and successfully searched at its last known whereabouts. His late father was an avid motorsport enthusiast and although I don't want to replace his grandparents wristwatch for daily activities, this timepiece meets a number of criteria that hopefully connects with him.

I wanted to give him a timepiece so every time he looks at his wrist he can remember his late father. He can hopefully learn to manage time by arriving and departing on time respecting the work and effort required to purchase such items. His father had an amazing work ethic, a strong sense of values and was pretty handy with most things, he was respectful and knew how to look after items of value.

I don't want to be disrespectful to my nephew as I am well aware that he thinks about his father constantly. Want I am seeking is a positive connection to what his father enjoyed and that is cars, motorsport and golf. The next connection he and his father followed together was Australian Rules Football and Tissot is the official timekeeper of the AFL so hopefully he feels a connection with the brand.

The PRS 516 chronograph has the option of an automatic or quartz movement, I was looking at the quartz movement for him as he wouldn't appreciate the complexities of an automatic movement and doesn't want to be setting the time constantly.

According to Tissot, the PRS 516 reflects on the 1960s motorsport inspired origins immediately drawing comparisons in my mind with the TAG Heuer Carrera, Omega Speedmaster and Rolex Daytona, albeit in a slightly different price range.

The ETAG10.212 quartz movement has 4 jewels and expected 2 year battery life. The 42 mm 316L stainless steel case is water resistant to 100 metres and comes with a ceramic bezel and scratch resistant sapphire crystal. Hopefully, he can now he not scratch the face as he tends to be a little rough on hardware.

The dial I preferred is black although a white option exists but that wouldn't suit him. There are three colour schemes of yellow, red and blue with colouring on the second hand, chronograph hands, pushers and model number on the yellow and red models but not the blue model.

Ironically after so much thought, I didn't end up getting him this timepiece. I ended up looking at something a little less cluttered on the dial; I thought better represented his new life just beginning now he is eighteen. Maybe me making him think of his father every time he looked at his wrist was a bit presumptuous; so instead I made another choice that hopefully had just as much thought put into it as this choice.