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As official timekeeper of the Tour de France, the Vuelta a España and numerous other cycling races, the watch brand Tissot bears a crucial responsibility for delivering precise results. Real-time reliability is ensured by its so-called "Live Timing" technology, built on a range of state-of-the-art instruments and systems. Find out how timekeeping works at the most prestigious competitions and what ties the Swiss watch brand to the world of sport.
Transponders, Computers and Cameras
Extreme accuracy, lightning-fast processing and absolutely no errors – to guarantee flawless timing at the world-famous Tour de France, the Tissot Live Timing system relies on transponders and cameras working in tandem. Here's how it works: each rider's bike carries a modern radio transmitter that identifies the rider when crossing the finish line and sends the corresponding signal to a timing computer in the control room known as the "Chronopole."
The control room is also equipped with several high-tech cameras based on the Swiss watchmaker's "Photofinish" technology, capturing up to 10,000 frames per second.
This not only allows riders to be recorded with millimeter precision, but also enables all data to be passed on instantly to media outlets worldwide for publication. Another key aspect of Live Timing is the cooperation between timekeepers and the race jury – for example, when a rider's recorded time has to be increased due to a penalty.
An additional challenge of the French race, which covers more than 3,500 kilometers, is that the timing infrastructure has to be set up anew again and again – every morning, a team of several people takes care of the installation. Only this makes it possible to use "Time Trial," a subsystem of Live Timing that ensures intermediate times are recorded correctly.
From Track to Mountain Bike: Tissot in Cycling
But it's not only at the "Grande Boucle" – this technology also delivers consistently exact, up-to-date figures at the Spanish road race, the Vuelta. Held every year since 1955, the race's 21 stages, which traditionally finish in Madrid, are known above all for their rolling profile and at times brutal climbs – while this poses an extreme challenge for the riders, it changes the timekeepers' work only marginally.
Even so, the Swiss manufacturer regularly has to adapt its measuring techniques, a result of its extensive involvement in virtually every discipline of cycling. Live Timing is used at the track events of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup, on the mountain bike courses of the UCI MTB World Championships, and at the UCI BMX World Championships.
In partnership with France's Amaury Sports Organisation (A.S.O.), however, Tissot aims not only to provide high-quality timekeeping, but also to foster enthusiasm for cycling – and, naturally, to raise its own profile. This is by no means a short-lived trend: the brand has served as official timekeeper of various cycling races for more than 50 years, working closely with cycling's world governing body, the UCI.
A Partnership That Pays Off
While Live Timing is deployed at the highest-ranking events in the sporting world, the Swatch Group brand's wristwatches are meant above all to resonate with customers. In recent years, the brand has done an excellent job of bridging these two worlds: the manufacturer's name evokes Swiss quality standards at an affordable price, while its products from Le Locle are associated with the very precision required for timing famous cycling races.
In addition, the company, founded in 1853, regularly launches special collections that create an extra link to the sport in question. A current example is the T-Race Cycling Tour de France 2019 Special Edition: the quartz chronograph's aluminum bezel, set on a carbon ring, is meant to represent a wheel rim, while the pushers are styled after modern brake levers. Rounded off by the famous race's logo on the caseback, this timepiece is aimed squarely at cycling enthusiasts. The model, one of four special editions marking the 2019 Grande Boucle, is part of a whole series of sporty T-Race editions priced under €500.
An Expert in Official Timekeeping
Back to Tissot Live Timing: the Swiss manufacturer is in demand as a timekeeper not only in cycling, but in numerous other sports as well. The brand is heavily involved in basketball, as demonstrated by its partnerships with the world governing body FIBA and the American NBA; just recently, Tissot put its technology to work at the 18th Basketball World Cup in China.
Further partnerships with the MotoGP motorcycle world championship, the Six Nations rugby tournament and the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation illustrate the company's close ties to the world of sport as a whole – and, not least, the wide range of applications for Live Timing.
Of course, Tissot is not the only authority when it comes to precise timekeeping: TAG Heuer, Rolex, Breitling and Omega are just a few examples of renowned manufacturers that showcase their names at prestigious events while serving as timekeepers with modern live timing systems.
Yet these partnerships (which are, not least, financially lucrative) go far beyond mere marketing – it is the continuous development of modern timing instruments that benefits watch lovers most.
Because wherever the best, most reliable timekeeping is needed, and wherever brand-new technologies gradually find their way onto the wrist, an incomparable industry stays alive. An industry that could hardly face a more exciting future than the years ahead.