The same movement architecture, the same crystal, the same $210 service. One is the thinnest watch on this site and cannot get wet. The other swims and can never be restrapped.
Buy the PRX if this will be your only watch: 100m of water resistance against the Le Locle's 30m is the difference between a watch you never think about and one you take off to wash up. Buy the Le Locle if you already own something you can swim in and you want a true dress watch — 9.75mm thick, the thinnest on this site, on conventional 19mm lugs you can restrap for any occasion.
Tissot's two best-known automatics sit at the same money with the same movement architecture, the same crystal and the same published service price. The PRX is the integrated-bracelet watch that everyone copied. The Le Locle is the conventional dress watch Tissot has been making far longer, and it is the thinnest watch anywhere on this site.
Our Gentleman versus PRX comparison already covered one half of this: conventional lugs against the integrated bracelet. This pair adds the variable that one makes larger — water resistance. The Gentleman is 100m. The Le Locle is 30m, and 30m is the lowest rating on any Swiss automatic we recommend.
So the choice is not really thin against thick. It is whether you are buying one watch or adding to a collection, because a 30m watch cannot be the only watch you own.
On prices: every buy button on this page reads its figure from the live price layer and stamps the date it was checked, or else reads "Check price on Amazon". No price is written into this text. Service figures quoted here are the manufacturers' own published rates.
How we picked
We have not worn these watches. What follows is what we checked instead, on documents you can open yourself — the same criteria, in the same order, on every roundup on this site. The full method is on the methodology page.
01Water resistance
30m against 100m. 30m means keep it off in the shower; 100m means stop thinking about it. On a single-watch collection this decides everything.
02Thickness
9.75mm against 10.93mm. Both are thin for an 80-hour automatic; the Le Locle is the thinnest watch on this site.
03Strap options
Conventional 19mm lugs against a 12mm integrated fitting. One can be restrapped for the life of the watch; the other cannot be restrapped at all.
04Case finish
A PVD coating on the Le Locle against bare 316L on the PRX. A coating is a wear layer, whatever the metal underneath.
05What is identical
An 80-hour Powermatic 80, a sapphire crystal, two years of warranty, and Tissot's published $210 complete service with 24 months of warranty on the work.
Disclosure · Some links below are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy through one we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not decide what goes on this page or in what order — here is exactly how that works.
Quick picks
Ranked on the Keep Score below — six published specifications, weighted identically on every page. The last row is the one we would not buy.
#
Watch
Best for
Keep Score
Price
1
Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 40mm T137.407.11.041.00
100m, 10.93mm, sapphire, 80-hour Powermatic 80, published $210 service.
Keep Score is arithmetic, not opinion — six published specifications, weighted the same way on every page. The formula is on our methodology page, so you can re-run it yourself.
100m and a 40mm case mean you never take this off to wash your hands, swim a length or get caught in rain. For a single automatic that has to cover an office, a weekend and a wedding, that is the specification that matters most.
10.93mm thick with an 80-hour reserve, sapphire, and Tissot's published $210 complete-service price with 24 months of warranty on the work. Thin, Swiss, and cheap to keep by the standards of anything else Swiss.
The 12mm fitting is not a strap size. The first bracelet link is part of the case, so no leather, no NATO, no swapping — ever. You are keeping the bracelet Tissot supplied for the life of the watch, and if it does not fit your wrist well the only fix is to sell it.
Tissot publishes a US complete-service price of $210 for a mechanical two-or-three-hand watch, which makes this the most predictable Swiss automatic here to own. The 12mm lug width is not a strap size — the bracelet is part of the case.
Manufacturer specifications for the Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 40mm T137.407.11.041.00
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9.75mm is the number. Under 10mm with 80 hours of reserve is the combination that makes a dress watch behave like one — it slips under a cuff rather than lifting it, and it is still running on Monday if you put it down on Friday.
Conventional 19mm lugs, so this watch can be brown leather for a wedding, black for a funeral, and a grey NATO at the weekend. Over a decade that flexibility is worth more than a tenth of a millimetre. The Powermatic 80 here carries a Nivachron antimagnetic balance spring.
30m is the hard limit, and it is a real one: take it off before the shower and before the pool. The case is 316L with a PVD coating, which is a consumable wear layer rather than an upgrade — when it goes through, it goes through. Same $210 service, same two years.
Under 10mm thick with 80 hours of reserve is the combination that makes a dress watch practical — put it down on Friday and it is still running Monday. 30m means keep it off in the shower.
Manufacturer specifications for the Tissot Le Locle Powermatic 80 39.3mm T006.407.22.093.00
Movement
Swiss automatic, Powermatic 80, Nivachron balance spring
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It fails this comparison because it is not a Tissot. It is here because it answers both halves of this page at once: 100m like the PRX, conventional 20mm lugs like the Le Locle.
Dual-curved sapphire, a super-hard coating on the case, 72 hours, a published accuracy tolerance Tissot does not state for either watch here, three years of warranty against Tissot's two, and a published $296 overhaul.
It is 13mm thick, which is 3.25mm more than the Le Locle and the practical ceiling for a slim cuff. If thinness is the whole point, this is not the watch.
This is the Presage with the Prospex specification sheet: dual-curved sapphire, 100m, 72 hours and a published +25 to -15 seconds a day, on the 6R family's published $296 service path. It is 13mm thick, which is the price of all that on a dress watch.
Manufacturer specifications for the Seiko Presage Classic Series SPB471J1
Movement
Seiko 6R5J, automatic with manual winding, +25/-15 sec per day
Read from Tissot's own product pages for T006.407.22.093.00 and T137.407.11.041.00, and its published US service prices.
Tissot Le Locle
Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 40mm
Movement
Powermatic 80, Nivachron balance spring
Powermatic 80
Power reserve
80 hours
80 hours
Case
39.3mm, 9.75mm thick
40mm, 10.93mm thick
Case material
316L with PVD coating
316L stainless steel
Crystal
Sapphire
Sapphire
Water resistance
30m
100m
Strap fitting
19mm conventional lugs
12mm integrated
Warranty
2 years
2 years
Published service
$210, 24 months on the work
$210, 24 months on the work
Read from Tissot's own product pages for T006.407.22.093.00 and T137.407.11.041.00, and its published US service prices.
30m is not a footnote
A 30m rating does not mean 30 metres of swimming. It is a static pressure test, and the practical reading is: splashes and rain, nothing else. No shower, because hot water expands gaskets. No pool, no sea, no washing the car.
That is perfectly workable for a watch that goes on with a shirt and comes off at the end of the day. It is not workable for the only watch you own, because the one you own will eventually be on your wrist when something unplanned happens to it. Our water resistance guide sets out what each rating actually permits.
The PRX at 100m sits in the other category entirely — it is a dress-adjacent watch you can forget about, which is why this site files it under everyday as well as dress.
The integrated bracelet, once more
The PRX's bracelet is not a metal strap. The first link is shaped into the case, which is what gives the watch its uninterrupted line and is a genuine design achievement at the price. It also means there is no spring-bar gap, and therefore no standard strap on earth that fits.
If the supplied bracelet sizes correctly to your wrist, that costs you nothing but choice. If it does not — if it is a half-link too loose or the taper sits badly — there is no remedy. The Le Locle's 19mm lugs are an odd size that narrows your strap options slightly, but "slightly narrowed" and "none at all" are different problems. Our lug width guide lists every watch here that takes no standard strap.
The coating nobody mentions
The Le Locle reference we cover is 316L stainless steel with a PVD coating. PVD is a thin hard layer deposited on the surface; it looks excellent and it is a consumable. Once the high points on the lugs and the bracelet wear through, the steel shows and the only fix is a recoat, which Tissot does not price publicly.
The PRX is bare steel, which marks and polishes back the way steel always has. Over twenty years that is the more forgiving surface. Our titanium versus stainless steel guide makes the same argument about coatings on either metal.
What is genuinely identical
Both run an 80-hour Powermatic 80 — Tissot's long-reserve architecture, an ETA derivative with a reduced beat rate and a silicon hairspring at some references, and a Nivachron balance spring on the Le Locle we cover. Both have sapphire. Both carry two years of warranty. Both sit on Tissot's published $210 complete-service price with 24 months of warranty on the work.
That last figure is the reason Tissot appears so often on this site. Hamilton publishes a European list with no US equivalent; Citizen, Orient and Timex publish nothing at all. Tissot gives you a number, and it applies equally to both of these watches. Our cost of ownership page does the twenty-year arithmetic.
Which to buy
One watch in the collection: the PRX, for the 100m. Several watches in the collection and a need for something that actually disappears under a cuff: the Le Locle, for the 9.75mm and the strap freedom.
If the integrated bracelet is the sticking point but you want the 100m, the Tissot Gentleman is the third option — conventional lugs, 100m, 11.5mm, same movement family, same service price. And is the Tissot PRX worth it covers the PRX on its own terms.
Questions people actually ask
Which is thinner, the Tissot Le Locle or the PRX?+
The Le Locle, at 9.75mm against the PRX's 10.93mm. The Le Locle is the thinnest watch on this site, and both carry an 80-hour Powermatic 80 movement.
Can you swim with a Tissot Le Locle?+
No. Tissot rates it at 30m, which covers splashes and rain only — no showering, no pool, no sea. The PRX at 100m is the one to buy if the watch will get wet.
Can you fit a leather strap to a Tissot PRX?+
Not a standard one. The case takes a 12mm integrated fitting rather than conventional spring-bar lugs, so you keep the bracelet it came with. The Le Locle uses conventional 19mm lugs and takes any strap in that width.
Do they cost the same to service?+
Yes. Tissot publishes $210 for a complete mechanical service with 24 months of warranty on the work, and it applies to both. That is a rarity at this level — Citizen, Orient and Timex publish nothing.
Does the PVD coating on the Le Locle wear off?+
Eventually, on the high points of the lugs and bracelet, as any PVD layer does. It is a wear layer rather than an upgrade. The PRX's bare steel marks more easily but polishes back.
Sources
Every specification and figure on this page came from one of these documents. Where a manufacturer does not publish something, the page says so rather than filling the gap.
