You will not be surprised if I tell you that there is currently a buying frenzy for integrated bracelet steel sports watches. The most wanted are the iconic Patek Philipp Nautilus, Audermars Piguet Royal Oak and Vacheron Constantin Overseas. The hype is so strong that they are unfortunately nearly impossible to get, but it is still possible to get access to the Girard Perregaux Laureato and the Chopard Alpine Eagle. All of them nevertheless come at a high price, well above 10'000€ at retail and often a lot more on the second hand market for the holy trinity watches. In 2021 Tissot proposed an alternative, called the PRX, an integrated steel sports watch at a price below 1'000€. Available in 40mm case powered by a self-winding caliber or in 35 mmm case with a quartz movement, the launch of the PRX was an instant success.

PRX Powermatic 80 is the 40mm case version, powered by a self-winding caliber. It was until now available with a textured black, green, blue or white dial, but in 2023 come the new ice blue dial version.

The PRX Powermatic 80 watch has a 40 mm diameter and 10.9 mm stainless steel tonneau case. The lug-to-lug separation is only 44.6 mm, but it reaches 51 mm when the bending of the steel bracelet is taken into account. Considering this separation and considering that the case is quite flat, the watch wears quite big on a 16 cm circumference wrist, I would even say that the watch dimensions already are at the limit for this wrist size.

As mentioned previously, the tonneau case is quite flat. The top surfaces and the flanks are satin-brushed finished, whereas the bevels are polished. The non-rotated steel bezel is also polished.

The most striking part of the watch is it sunburst ice-blue textured dial. If fact the watch in this configuration reminds me of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 37mm with a light blue dial (ref. 15550ST.OO.1356ST.04), and I am quite sure this is not a coincidence.

The textured dial of the PRX Powermatic is composed of a network of squares. In contrast with the tapisserie-dial of the Royal Oak, the surfaces of the squares and the gaps on the PRX dial are smooth, whereas additional sub-textures are visible on the AP tapisserie dial.

The squares of the dial texture can appear brighter or darker than the dial color, depending of the angle of the external light.

The hours are indicated by faceted applied baton indices on the textured dial. The 12 o'clock hour is indicated by two batons placed side-by-side, whereas the other hours are indicated by a single baton. The minute track is printed in black color on the ice-blue dial.

The hour and minute hands adopt a faceted baton shape. The hour and minute hands, as well as the hour indices, are filled with luminescent material.

"TISSOT" and "1853" are printed in black color below the 12 o'clock index.

"PRX" and "POWERMATIC 80" are printed in black color just below the hand axis.

A framed date windows is located at 3 o'clock, in front of the hour index. The date is printed in black color on a white background. This date window is legible without being too intrusive.

The dial is protected by a sapphire crystal with antireflective coating. The watch has a 100M water resistance. It should be noticed that there is now crow-guard to protect the signed crown.

The watch is powered by the Powermatic 80.111 caliber (Base ETA 2824-2). This self-winding caliber beats at 28'800 v/h frequency (4Hz) and has an up-to-date power reserve of 80 h.

The watch caliber can be seen though the transparent case back. The caliber is nicely decorated for a watch of this price range. "TISSOT 1853", "SAPPHIRE CRYSTAL", "STAINLESS STEEL" and "WATER RESISTANT 10 bar (100m/330ft) are engraved on the metal part of the case back.

The surface of the integrated stainless steel bracelet of the Powermatic 80 is fully brushed, the inside surface of the links is polished. The bracelet is quite heavily tempered, as expected for an integrated bracelet. There is no micro-ajustment but the links are not so large, so it should be fine the adjust the bracelet size. The links are maintained by push-pins, I am not really a fan of this system, but the links are so thin that I think it would not have been possible to fit screw links. The bracelet is closed by a double-trigger deployant butterfly clasp. The bracelet is also equipped with a quick release feature. It is therefore possible to easily replace the stainless steel bracelet with Tissot leather straps.

Finally! A great looking and budget friendly integrated steel sports watch is available on the market. The Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 just looks awesome, a rough but pretty tool watch. For sure this PRX seems quite inspired by the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 37mm with a light blue dial. Well the tapisserie-like sunburst ice-blue dial is stunning and it is nearly impossible to get access to this AP so I am not complaining. The PRX Powermatic 80 is anyway not a rip-off, its tonneau case is quite original, it has a very strong 70s vibe. In fact my only complain comes from the case dimensions. It will not fit small wrist, only realy it looks too big for a 16cm circumference wrist. To my opinion a 37-38mm diameter case would have been perfect to suit most of us. The PRX is also available in 35mm but unfortunately with a quartz movement. The PRX Powermatic 80 is instead powered by a self-winding ETA caliber, 4Hz, 80h power reserve, just perfect. Icing on the cake, the PRX Powermatic 80 only costs 745€. At this price, this is a must have.