Tissot Gentleman Open Heart vs Hamilton Jazzmaster Skeleton

100m against the Hamilton's 50m is the difference between a watch you forget about and a watch you take off before washing up. On an openworked watch — which people assume is fragile — that rating is the single most reassuring number on the spec sheet.

The quick-release bracelet is the detail worth paying for: this is one of very few Swiss automatics at this level you can re-strap in thirty seconds without a tool. The 21mm lug width is odd, so a replacement strap costs more and takes longer to find, but you can at least fit one.

Tissot publishes $210 for a complete mechanical service in the US and warrants each intervention for 24 months. That is a full point in our formula and the main reason this scores 8.4 against the Hamilton's 8.1 — not the specification, the information.

The gap against the Hamilton: Tissot publishes no lug-to-lug, so you cannot check the footprint before buying, and the dial is a single aperture rather than a fully openworked movement. If seeing the whole movement is the point, this is the wrong one.

The quick-release bracelet is the detail worth paying for: this is one of the few Swiss automatics at this level you can re-strap in thirty seconds without a tool.

42mm of published lug-to-lug on a 40mm case is remarkable and it is the reason to buy this one. It is the shortest footprint on this site, which means a 40mm watch that sits on a wrist most 38mm watches overhang. If your current watch overhangs, start here.

It is also the only fully skeletonized watch in this price pair: the dial is cut away rather than given a window, on the 80-hour H-10-S. Sapphire, 11.05mm — slightly thinner than the Tissot — and a standard, even 20mm lug width, so straps are available everywhere forever.

50m is the honest limit, and it is why this ranks second. An open dial is still a sealed case, but this is not a watch to swim in, and it is the lower rating of the two by a full tier.

Hamilton publishes a European service price list and no US equivalent, so there is no figure to look up before you buy. On a watch meant to last that is a real gap, and it is the second of the two lines where the Tissot pulls ahead.

42mm lug-to-lug on a 40mm case is remarkable — this is a skeleton watch that actually fits a normal wrist. 50m is the honest limit: an open dial is still a sealed case, but it is not a watch to swim in.

If the openworked dial is what you want and neither of the Swiss watches fits the budget, this is the third option and it beats both on one specification: it is the only openworked watch on this site with a screw-down crown as well as a 100m rating.

An in-house Orient F6N44 with a 50-hour reserve and a power reserve hand on the dial, under sapphire.

It is bigger and thicker than both — 43.2mm and 13.7mm — with a 21mm odd lug width, and Orient publishes no service price list for the US market at all. It scores 7.8. The Jazzmaster against the Orient Star is compared in full on its own page.

The only openworked watch on this site rated to 100m with a screw-down crown, which is what makes it wearable rather than ornamental. The 21mm lug width is the catch: strap shopping will cost you more and take longer, forever.