This is my full review of the Tissot T-Touch Connnect Sport hybrid smartwatch. Tissot introduced the T-Touch Connect Sport as the most recent model in the T-Touch line-up in 2023 and it is still a current model. It is no secret I’m a fan of hybrid watches or hybrid smart watches, as you can read in this article. I’ve always loved wearing cool watches and I’ve owned many, but I also love tech and gadgets and the convenience of a smartwatch. That’s why I’ve been wearing smartwatches ever since the first Moto360 in 2014.
But I’ve also been going back and forth between my smartwatches and my regular watches since I like both and can’t really choose between them. So the hybrid watch seems to be the best in-between. And I’ve tested quite a few in the last years. I’ve used the Withings Scanwatch 2 and Withings Scanwatch Horizon for quite some time. And in my article about the best Hybrid Watch I’ve also shared my experience with the Tissot T-Touch Connect Solar, which is the Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport’s predecessor. In this review I’ll share my in-depth experience with the new(er) Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport that I’ve recently bought with my own money.
What is a Hybrid Watch?
A hybrid watch or hybrid smartwatch is a watch that combines the look and feel of a regular watch with smart functionality. There are several sorts of hybrid watches but for me a hybrid watch must have regular hands to tell time. And a small screen that will show you notifications of your phone. There are also hybrid watches that don’t have a screen. Those will only collect activity data and in some cases use a hand, light or vibration to notify you when you get a notification on your phone. For me that isn’t enough to call a watch a true hybrid.
The Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport ticks all boxes for me to call it a true Hybrid Watch. It has regular hands, and looks like a regular high quality watch. It also has a small screen that is only visible when in use. I’d much rather wear this in stead of one of the standard Apple Watches or Garmins.
Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport – size and weight
The T-Touch Connect Sport is a very nice looking watch, that looks and feels like a regular (higher-end) watch. The titanium case has a very wearable 43mm diameter. This makes the watch a lot more comfortable to wear than the older Tissot T-Touch Connect Solar since that has a much bigger 47mm case. Even though I have big wrists the older T-Touch is a bit too much.
The lug to lug distance on the T-Touch Connect Sport is just under 50mm. This makes the watch wear smaller than you might expect for a 43mm case. The case is 13,5mm thick, which is thin enough not to get in the way and fit under a sleeve cuff. The case is titanium and is available in natural titanium or with a black or rosé gold PVD coating. I’ve bought the natural titanium version on the titanium bracelet. But there are also other versions available with either rubber or textile bands. Because of the titanium construction the watch is durable and scratch resistant. But it is also lighter than you might expect, with the case without band weighing just 69 grams.
Glass and watch face
The crystal on the watch is scratch resistant sapphire glass. And the T-Touch Connect Sport is waterproof up to 50 meters, which should be enough for casual surface swimming. It is a shame it isn’t waterproof up to 100 meters like the older T-Touch Connect Solar.
Under the crystal you will find the deep black solar watch face with indices that seem to hover above the black face. It has a subtle ‘Swiss Made’ marking. The hands themselves are skeletonized. Only the tips are white. The hands and indices have green glowing super luminova coating. The typical Tissot seconds hand that ends in the ‘T’ logo is red, giving the watch a splash of color. On the top of the watch face you will find the Tissot 1853 logo in white.
Build and details
As you might expect from a rather expensive Swiss made watch (the Titanium model on the bracelet costs 1095 euro) the build quality is great. The watch has a nicely finished case with both brushed and polished surfaces and polished edges. The sapphire crystal is surrounded by a black ceramic bezel with engraved indices and numbers. These are filled with white paint. There are also models with a titanium, blue or a gold PVD coated bezel. On the right side are the two function buttons (and no crown) with the small ‘T’ logo in between the buttons.
On the back of the watch you will find the heart rate sensor and magnetic charging connection. The magnets help to align the charger so it snaps in place. The charging cable has a USB-A connector. You can use any charger with a maximum output of 15 watts to charge the watch.
The version with the titanium bracelet is 100 euro’s more expensive than the ones with the rubber band. But the supplied band is worth the extra investment. It has the same brushing as the case and the middle links are polished. As you might expect for this price, the end links are solid and there is a milled clasp. The clasp also has a quick extension option that will lengthen the bracelet by up to 1 cm in small steps. This is great to quickly adjust the size.
Functionality – what it doesn’t do and battery life
When talking about the functionality it might be good to start with all the things the T-Touch Connect Sport doesn’t do or have. With recent smartwatches by Garmin, Samsung or Apple we’ve come to expect endless functionality and health tracking options. But all these functions consume a lot of energy. This makes the battery life of the average smartwatch about 2-3 days, when you are lucky (Garmin excluded).
Tissot has chosen to go in an other direction. With a dedicated low-power OS, integrated solar charging (the dial is also a solar panel) and limited functionality they have created a watch that will last about 6 months in smartwatch mode, given you expose it to enough light. And it will last forever in unconnected mode. When using the fitness functions (more about that later) the battery will deplete sooner, but normally you will get at least 1-3 months before you need to connect the magnetic charger to top up the battery.
So getting back to what the Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport doesn’t do. There is no big OLED screen on the watch. There is also no sleep tracking. No full-time heart rate tracking and no built in GPS (it can connect to your phone’s GPS to track activity outside). There is also no ECG-function, no blood pressure measurement or saturation measurement. Also no WiFi on board, so the watch cant connect to internet without your phone nearby. And there is also no Apple, Google or Garmin pay, and not even SwatchPay is available despite Tissot being part of the Swatch group.
What might surprise previous T-Touch users is that typical T-Touch functionality is also absent from this new model. So there is no compass function, no barometer and no touch-zones on the crystal like previous T-Touch models had.
Specs of the Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport
Besides the things it doesn’t do there is also quite a big list of things this watch does do and have. And that list is a lot bigger than someone will expect when looking at your watch. The Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport has:
- Bluetooth connection with connected time
- It can display smartphone messages and call notifications
- Integrated solar panel for solar charging – up to 6 months of battery life
- Daily Activity tracking with steps, burned calories and active minutes
- Activity tracking for sports with heart rate, speed, distance (using the phone GPS), VO2 max and training zones
- Small, full color OLED display
- Hands that move out of the way when a message is displayed on the small screen
- Touchscreen
Notifications and calls
When you get a notification the watch will vibrate and make a beeping sound. Both can be turned on and off individually. The beep is quite annoying and loud, so you won’t miss it. Even in loud conditions. It sounds just like my Casio Royale, so it doesn’t sound very premium. Because of the tone I’ve quickly turned it off, especially when receiving a call the constant beeping is not good. The vibration on the other hand ís very good. It is hard enough so you won’t miss it, so it is a perfect alternative for the beep. It isn’t as ‘premium’ as the Apple Watch’s subtle ticks, but it gets the job done very well.
When receiving a notification the small OLED screen will quickly turn on and the watch hands get out of the way. The notifications are shown in black letters on a red background. This makes them easy to read at a glance. When you tap the notification it switches over to white text on a black background. Here you can scroll through the message to read more than the first preview. You can scroll using the screen or by pressing one of the two buttons on the side. You can’t reply to a message using the watch.
When someone calls you will see their name or number on the small screen. You have the option to mute or decline the call by tapping the screen. As there is no speaker and no microphone you cant take the call on the watch. But since you don’t want to look like an arse talking to your watch you probably wouldn’t miss that function. Unless you are David Hasselhoff trying to call KITT of course.
Using the T-Touch Connect Sport screen
One thing I like about the Tissot T-Touch Connect Solar is that the small screen has touch functionality. On the Withings smartwatches you can only use the buttons and crown to navigate the menu’s, which is a little fiddly. On the T-Touch Connect Sport you can just touch and swipe, and although the screen is small this works intuitive. When you push ant of the two buttons on the watch the screen is activated.
The standard ‘watch face’ home screen shows the date and number of steps. But you can change the home screen to show different data, like burned calories etc.. But I’ve chosen to let it show current time digitally and date. This way I can always check the time, even in the dark when the super luminova has dimmed too much. The screen will go off by itself after some time. You can also put the watch in stand-by by covering the screen with your whole hand palm.
When the Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport was introduced people were unhappy about the screens functionality. For instance it wasn’t possible to set an alarm from the watch. And it was not possible to show the time on the home screen. Or to show the current heart rate. Much of these functions were only available in the app. I’m happy to report that as of 2026 these problems are fixed. Also new is the option to see the current sun/ charging intensity. And this is also logged in the app so you can look back at the intensity of the day and anytime before.
Activity Tracking
When you call a watch ‘Sport’ you do raise some expectations. And in the beginning these weren’t all met. But with time and the new firmware versions Tissot has corrected a lot of the initial problems. For now I can say the tracking of sports activities is quite good, for casual use. If you are a hardcore sports enthusiast that needs the best and most accurate data this isn’t the watch for you. You will be better off with something like a Garmin, Apple Watch or Samsung Watch. If you are a casual athlete like me the Connect Sport will suffice. You can also connect the Tissot App to Apple Health or Strava to share the watches data.
Starting tracking an activity is quite easy. Just activate the screen and swipe up to go to the activities menu. Here you find icons for different activities. The standard options include things like walking, running, riding a bike, running on a treadmill etc. After starting an activity the watch will start tracking your heart rate. When you touch the screen it will cycle through options like distance, speed and also training zone (with a visual representation of the zones). After some time the screen will go in to stand-by and the hands will resume showing the regular time. When you raise your wrist to look at the watch the hand move out of the way and the last displayed data (for instance heart rate or zone) is shown again. Very convenient and it looks cool.
SW-alps and your data on the T-Touch Connect Sport
For the T-Touch Connected watches Tissot has developed their own low-power OS. They have given the system the rather funny and creative name SW-alps. The software is compatible with either iOS, Android or Harmony OS. The software is developed in house in Switzerland and any data that is collected is protected by the vigorous Swiss privacy laws. This is a great advantage in my eyes.
Problems and things to keep in mind
When comparing the T-Touch Connect Sport to regular smartwatches it is clear that Tissot has made choices. These leads to a much better battery life, but also some limitations. For instance, the watch doesn’t have WiFi or 4/5G connectivity. So it needs a Bluetooth connection. The T-Touch Connect Sport also relies on your phone for the GPS signal, so you can’t track distance and location without your phone when running for instance. There is also no payment functionality. But these are limitations I happily accept to get the better battery life and a better looking watch.
There are also some software problems I read about online. Some might have been fixed with new firmware versions by now, but others might still be current. For instance, I read about people having problems with the stability of the Bluetooth connection. I’m happy to report that I haven’t had any problems with this on my iPhone.
One other problem I keep reading about is that the hands get out of calibration. Unfortunately this problem also plagues my T-Touch. When you get a message the hands move out of the way. This works fine for the minute and hour hand, but the seconds hand seems to have a mind of it own. It randomly moves to any position it feels like, but almost never to the 12 o-clock position it should. You can fix this by selecting the calibration option in the menu. This works great for a few hours, but after that the problem comes back. Unfortunately the older Tissot T-Touch Connect Solar also had the same problem, so it seems a hard problem to solve for Tissot. Luckily I don’t mind it too much, it looks a bit off but doesn’t impact the functionality.
The best smartwatch you can buy?
Is the Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport the best smartwatch you can buy? No, not by a long shot! There are many alternatives that have much more functionality at a much lower price. But when you are comparing functionality to full smartwatches this probably isn’t the right watch for you. The Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport is a watch for people that don’t want to wear a soulless mini-phone on their wrist. It is for people that enjoy a regular, real watch but also want or need some basic smart functionality and health tracking. The T-Touch Connect Sport is a proper ‘Swiss Made’ watch first, smartwatch second. And it has the price to match its Swiss Made moniker.
Conclusion
So is the Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport the best hybrid smartwatch you can buy? Maybe… If you need advanced health tracking and still want a hybrid watch there are better options like the Withings Scanwatch 2 or Horizon/Nova. These offer Apple-level health tracking while still looking like a regular watch. But when it comes to handling notifications I like Tissots implementation better. Here you can check older messages you have missed for instance. An option that is missing in the Withings. And the screen on the Tissot is bigger and has touch functionality, making it easier to use. The battery life is even better than the Withings watches.
And then there is the matter taste. I love the look of the Tissot T-Touch Connect Sport. Especially in the titanium version on the bracelet. It is classy enough to wear to a formal gathering. But also casual enough for wearing in your time off, especially when you replace the bracelet for the black rubber band. So is the best hybrid watch? For now it is for me. But I’m also tempted by the new Tag Heuer Connected Calibre E5. This takes the hybrid idea the other way, it is a true smartwatch but with real watchmaking pedigree. Interesting!
The Macro images in this review have been shot using the Laowa 180mm f/4.5 AF 1.5X Ultra Macro lens.
