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 watchmaking, though some notable indie exceptions exist. GoS from Sweden uses Damascus hand-forged specifically for their watches, which start around $12,500. Sinn has made a couple of “Damaszener” versions: one in steel and the other in titanium (often called TiMascus), both around $10,000. An affordable but limited outlier is Zelos, which occasionally uses the material for small batches, priced from $950. It pops up here and there in bezels, dials, and mid-cases, but still would qualify as rare.

So, Tissot, a mass-produced, accessibly-priced Swiss retail watch brand, dropping a line of Damascus steel watches definitely counts as surprising. Surprising and exciting. Of course, there must be a caveat: how can a watch with retail margins and a $1,175 price tag use a handcrafted material economically? The answer is, differently.

Traditional Damascus is created by taking sheets of steel in differing alloys, layering them, forging and folding them repeatedly to reach the desired number of layers, which can range from a few to thousands, and then manipulating them to create unique patterns, shaping, hardening, etc. The time, let alone skill, this takes makes mass production untenable. So, they use a modern method that fuses layers of powdered steel of different alloys using intense heat and pressure to create Damascus billets.

While Tissot doesn’t go into great detail as to what follows that step, such as if it needs any additional folding, forging, or hardening, or how the patterns are created, this initial method clearly goes a long way toward mass production. Whether a metallurgical purist would still call it Damascus or just “sparkling-layered-steel” (sorry, I knew I wanted to make that joke before starting this article) is tbd. Still, the end product, visually at least, has the same qualities. There are clearly different tones of steel interweaving throughout the case, dial, and, impressively, the buckle, creating dynamic, gorgeous, and random textures.

Tissot’s Damascus is composed of 70 layers, creating a tight grain in certain areas, such as along the case sides of the sample seen here. The dial is more of a psychedelic swirl, almost like drops of oil in water or a topographic map. The difference between the case and dial grains is stark, enhancing the overall effect and highlighting the material’s unique properties.

The layered alloys are both a steel-gray tone, looking almost like the difference between brushed and matte steel. Some Damascus steels are much more contrasty, which, while dramatic, could have pushed the PRX into slightly less wearable territory. As is, the grain is present, but not overwhelming. That said, the contrast is a little starker on the dial than in the case.

While the case and dial being made of Damascus is impressive enough, the fact that they went the extra mile and made the buckle and buckle tang Damascus is even more so. Pin buckles are often overlooked because they are typically inexpensive and, in the case of a large brand like Tissot, probably ordered in large quantities in single designs. Had they just gone with a matte finish on standard steel, for example, I don’t think many people would have cared or even noticed. But they did go for it, which is awesome.

The only components that aren’t Damascus are the crown and case back. I am curious as to the reasoning here. Perhaps the tolerances needed for threading were too high, or, since these are components that often come into contact with skin, they went with full steel for corrosion or irritation reasons. Hard to say. Either way, I don’t think it affects the watch’s appearance. The crown is relatively small, and from the top, the grooves would obscure the Damascus texture anyway. The case back, obviously, is not visible when worn.

Tissot used the Damascus and full titanium PRXs to introduce the 38mm case. Another exciting development: previously, time-only PRXs came in 40mm and 35mm, which were too big and too small, respectively, for my wrist. The 40mm was close, but after prolonged wear, I would find them too flat and eventually irritating. The 35mm went too far in the other direction. Ok, there are also 25mm versions, but I haven’t tested those.

Unsurprisingly, 38mm is just right. Probably my favorite size for a general wear watch, whether round and with lugs, or barrel and integrated, it always seems to work on my 6.75” wrist. Measuring 42.6mm lug-to-lug and 11mm thick, this case is really quite ideal. Because of the short lug-to-lug, the angle of the integrated strap makes it perfectly wrap around my wrist.

On a related note, as someone who shies away from integrated bracelet watches most of the time because I’m not keen on being stuck wearing a bracelet, the fact that this comes on leather is great. Admittedly, this is probably because of the cost of making a Damascus bracelet, but going leather was maybe the better choice. They used a heavily grained black leather for the strap that echoes the texture of the metal without overwhelming it. The quality of the strap is good too, with a supple feel and a rembordé edge.

Clearly, I like this watch. The Tissot PRX is already a proven quantity, but as someone who has never felt compelled to pick one up, the combination of Damascus steel and a 38mm case makes it very tempting. Priced at $1,175, I think it’s a good value for something quite exotic, though it is priced at a premium over the other models. A standard 40mm mechanical PRX on a bracelet is $850, and the new full titanium 38mm models are $975, making them truly great deals (especially the Ti). So, yes, it loses some pure “value” but more than makes up for it, in my book, in character and uniqueness. Tissot