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Tissot Astrolon 2250

Probable

Astrolon · Sytal · Tissot 2250

One of the genuinely unusual objects in twentieth-century watchmaking and the reason the IDEA 2001 is in this catalog at all. Its authentication significance is that it inverts the normal reading of a movement: moulding seams, a single jewel and no decoration are the SPECIFICATION here, and an examiner applying ordinary quality inference will conclude that a correct movement is a fake one. The jewel count is worth knowing exactly rather than approximately — one, not none — because a zero would be as wrong as a seventeen. Its descendant is better known than it is: Swatch's Sistem51 of 2013 revived the same idea at 51 parts to the Astrolon's 52.

Specifications

Movement manufacturer
Tissot
Production
1971–1978
Jewels
1
Winding
automatic

Architecture

A movement whose main plate, bridges and wheels are injection-moulded from a self-lubricating polymer, at 52 parts against the roughly 91 of a conventional caliber. Exactly ONE jewel — the escapement's impulse pin, in synthetic ruby. The only metal is the balance assembly (gold-plated brass with an Elinvar balance spring), the mainspring and barrel, and the winding mechanism.

Service practice

Effectively unserviceable by design. Parts were not stocked for the long term, the polymer ages, and the standard repair is a donor movement. A non-running example is the ordinary condition.

References using this caliber

Provenance of this record

Sources & Evidence

Contemporaneous sourceMuseum or institutional archive

Tissot heritage and museum material on the Le Locle manufacture

Tissot SA

Accessed
2026-08-19

Cited for

This referenceProbable
Secondary sourceCollector research

Tissot collector research on vintage calibers, redials and reference formats

Collector communities and specialist dealers

Accessed
2026-08-19

Cited for

This referenceProbable

Last verified: Not yet reviewed