Fifteen to twenty thousand euros: that’s what you’ll need to shell out for a Mathey-Tissot Type XX from the 1950s or ’60s. The high price reflects the vibrancy of the second-hand market for Mathey-Tissot mechanical timepieces, which are highly sought after by collectors despite being relatively unknown to the public at large.
Alberto Frigerio, the brand’s CEO and owner, has set himself the goal of putting fine mechanical watchmaking back in centre stage. He’s not one of those CEOs who parachute into a historic brand with the well-intentioned aim of taking it “back to its roots”. He joined the company nearly 30 years ago, in 1994, and became its owner five years ago.
He started out by focusing on developing Mathey-Tissot in the Swiss, German and Austrian markets. After purchasing the brand in 2016, he took on the role of CEO and threw himself into the challenge of cataloguing all the archives, with a view to turning the spotlight on the brand’s monumental heritage. This led to the renaissance of a number of iconic pieces, which are now keenly sought after. Key pieces include the above-mentioned Type XX, the Mergulhador, a rare dive watch produced for the Portuguese market, 8-day dashboard clocks and Spitfire chronographs, to name just a few.
The Mathey-Tissot community follows these watches with an interest bordering on obsession. The British market is particularly lively; it’s not unusual for prestigious limited series – numbering in the tens of pieces – to sell out in two or three days in the UK. The German market is also very active, thanks largely to the hard work of a former company representative who negotiated a partnership with Sinn in 1964.
However, Mathey-Tissot watches are also of great interest to collectors of bigger brands including Breguet, Breitling, Girard-Perregaux, IWC and Vacheron Constantin, for whom Mathey-Tissot was a supplier for many years. They are joined by thematic collectors, such as military watch aficionados. Mathey-Tissot has supplied watches to the American army, the British Royal Air Force, and collaborated with Dodane, a revered name in dashboard chronograph design, among others. In the 20th century, Mathey-Tissot even bought one of Audemars Piguet’s factories in Le Brassus!
Today the brand is well represented around the world, with some 300 points of sale. In the last few years it has continued to grow its online presence, adding an e-commerce site to its brick-and-mortar retail outlets. 2022 is set to be a celebration of mechanical watchmaking, with a focus on affordable pricing combined with high quality. A number of reissues are in the pipeline. Mathey-Tissot will be working with its usual partners, Ronda and Sellita, as it has with Valjoux in the past. While collectors can look forward to seeing progressively higher-end creations from Mathey-Tissot, the maison is certainly not abandoning its roots. It remains a 100% independent family firm with a rich heritage to serve as a foundation for current and future creations.
