In this age of touchscreens, electronic this, and digital that, you might be thinking the good old analog timepiece — you know, actual hour and minute hands pointing to numbers on a dial — might be in grave danger. This is especially true in racing applications where hundredths of a second are pretty important. As if to reach an accord, the recently released Tissot T-Race Touch ($575) combines the best of the digital and analog worlds. It’s got both an analog and a digital time display, and adds in a touch-sensitive crystal for accessing handy racing-oriented digital features. What could be more, er… high-tech/high-touch than that?
The sapphire crystal sports an anti-reflective coating and has a transparent touch-sensitive overlay the wearer can activate with the push of a button. This allows access to the digital functions: alarm, timer, split and lap times. You can even convert the hands into an active compass needle — just in case you get lost on your way to the Snake Pit in Turn 3.
You can save all the data (total race time, each lap, slowest and fastest laps, and average lap) from the entire race with the T-Race Touch, or record total race times for up to 99 contestants. One last interesting feature: the watch has tide tables integrated (yep, those tides). So just in case you’re timing a submarine race, you won’t need to worry about running aground.
The stats aren’t skimpy, either. The T-Race is housed in a 42mm stainless steel case on a synthetic strap; the watch is water resistant to 100m, so seriously, you could time an actual submarine race if you wanted to. And there’s a whole lot more. We break it all down for you above.
