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Tissot watches have been part of motor racing for 50-odd years, going back to the days when drivers realised a Tissot was the watch to have when racing.
Harry Zwiefel, the Swiss champion in 1957 and 1958, said in 1959, "My Tissot is with me at every race."
The watch manufacturer made a name for itself from the 1960s to the mid-90s as a sponsor of motor racing with models from the PR516 (1965) to the present day. Today, the brand not only functions as official timekeeper and official watch of Nascar but also has a presence in AFL, CBA, MotoGP, cycling, fencing and ice hockey.
The direct connection with motor racing began in 1966 when Tissot launched the PR516 with its characteristic holes in the strap to represent sports car steering wheels with holes in the spokes.
Advertising on racecars was not sanctioned by the FIA until 1968 and it was not long after that Tissot became directly involved in racecar sponsorship. The Tissot name first appeared on a car during the Monte Carlo Rally in 1973, quickly followed in 1974 when the watchmaker co-sponsored a Porsche Carrera RSR in the Le Mans 24Hour race featuring then European champion Claude Ballot-Lena and Vic Elford.
Also in the same year, Tissot for the first time became involved with a driver when it sponsored Ferrari pilot Henry Braedly.
Wanting a bigger presence in Formula One, Tissot decided to get involved with Swiss driver Loris Kessel who had earned his spurs in Formula 3 and Formula 2. In 1976 Kessel contested five Grand Prix in a Brabham BT44 run by the English RAM team. It didn't work out, with Kessel unable to make any impression in an inferior car, so driver and team soon split.
By 1977 Tissot had moved to the Ensign team who had Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni as their drivers. Ickx only drove one race and Regazzoni could only manage two fifths and a sixth. When Regazzoni moved to the Shadow team in 1978 he took Tissot with him as his sponsor, but the watchmaker also kept faith with Ensign and Ickx, and contested four more races under the Tissot flag.
Having had a taste of F1, Tissot was on the lookout for a high-profile team and it was the Equipe Renault team who caught its eye. They had recently entered F1 with the first of the turbo-powered cars and the Tissot name was put on the front nose of the V6 powered racecars.
The breakthrough came in 1979 when Jean-Pierre Jabouille won at the French Grand Prix in Dijon. It was the first ever win for a Formula One car with a turbo engine. Also in this year, Tissot expanded its F1 activities and took over the sponsorship of the Lotus team whose drivers were Mario Andretti (world champion in 1978) and Carlos Reutemann. The relationship with Lotus continued until 1982 with Elio De Angelis and Nigel Mansell driving for Colin Chapman. After a hiatus from the sport, Tissot found its way back into F1 as the sponsor of the Sauber team in 1994 with Heinz-Harald Frentzen, JJ Lehto, Karl Wendlinger and Andrea de Cesaris.
Shortly afterwards, it went into IndyCar racing. Three years later, in 2005, Tissot entered a partnership with Nascar racing and became the official timekeeper and manufacturer of the Nascar watch.
In 2005 Tissot signed the only female IndyCar driver, Danica Patrick, who, as a rookie that year, finished fourth in the Indianapolis 500 and in doing so became the first woman to lead a lap at the Indy 500. Patrick paid back Tissot's support even more so when she became the first woman to win a major open-wheel race in 2008 by taking the chequered flag at the Indy Japan 300.
Tissot, with its signature - "Innovators by Tradition" - has made watches since 1853 and is now a member of the Swatch Group, the world's largest watch producer and distributor.
For over 155 years Tissot has had its home in the Swiss town of Le Locle in the Jura mountains, but now also has a presence in over 150 countries.
