Hands-On: the Tissot PRX Damascus Steel 38mm – One of the Biggest Surprises of 2025
It’s pretty uncommon for a watch line to maintain top-of-mind relevance with the watch community for more than a couple of years. Trends change, the hype spotlight shifts, and newness becomes necessary. We’ve seen brands try to push watches past their expiration points, resulting in diminished excitement and inevitably disappointing. With that said, one line that has endured far longer than I would have expected and is still going strong is the Tissot PRX. Launched in 2021, the PRX was an early entry into the affordable integrated sports watch category, which has also lasted longer than I would have bet. Yet despite being “several” years old, Tissot continues to surprise with updates to the PRX line, keeping it genuinely exciting. Smartly, they haven’t just used it as a throwback line, but rather to experiment with materials that typically come with a higher price tag. Notably, last year they made a forged carbon-fiber version that was lightweight and stealthy. While a material that had come downstream, so to speak, in the years prior, it was still unexpected from Tissot. But 2025’s entry wasn’t just surprising for Tissot; it was surprising for any large-scale brand, especially an affordable one. If you told me I’d be wearing a Damascus steel Tissot that cost $1,175 a few years ago, I would have said, “shut your face!” Just kidding, but I would have been immensely skeptical. An artisanal material, often seen in knife making, it’s scarcely used in watc...