I am looking to get my husband a nice gift. He doesn’t own any luxury watches, but has mentioned liking this one before. I know nothing about watches so … do you think this Tissot would make a good gift? Otherwise, would you be able to recommend some nice ones under $500?
It's a great gift! Just check if you think it'll fit his wrist well, because the lug to lug is a bit long. As for quartz vs auto, honestly the quartz is better value for money, even though the dial of the auto is a bit more appealing, and is like the original prx, plus the powermatic 80 is kind of a disposable movement if it needs service which for me personally, kills the "for life" aspect of a mechanical watch.
I've heard that the claims of the powermatic 80 being disposable are greatly exaggerated. Tissot will service them whenever you need.
I said "kind of" because servicing will be hard, unless of course, tissot does it, and Tissot probably isn't going anywhere anytime soon and the same can be said of the powermatic 80, so you just send it to tissot and they'll happily replace or service the watch.
I guess it is a bit region dependent sometimes, but many people don't have good independent watchmakers that will service "regular" watches, but for me a service for a watch is below 50 euros, so for me being able to do that is great and a decision factor.
I guess my point is: it's like buying a car you can only service at the dealership, and sure enough it seems to be increasingly that way, but i'll avoid that while i can.