The touch screen watch hasn't really taken off probably because many see it as a gimmick. Well, I think the T-Touch watch from Tissot may begin to break ground among consumers. First off, its touch screen menu is no gimmick. In fact, it's a huge improvement on existing watches with menu driven features. This watch comes with 11 features that can accessed by the press of two buttons. Remember those other watches where you have to press the mode button about 7 or 8 times before you get to where you want to be, and remember when you miss the function you wanted so you have go through the whole lot again?

So how does the Tissot T-Touch work?

To activate the touch screen functions you first have to press the right middle button for two seconds, and then you lightly tap various parts of the sapphire crystal to get to where you want to go. You may think that first having to activate the touch screen of the T-Touch watch to be a drag, but I can see why Tissot has done this; just about every time you looked at your watch you would be looking at some arbitrary function rather that the time - and it also saves on battery life when the watch is in normal time mode.

A quick overview of the more useful functions of the watch

Thermometer

The thermometer function tells you the average ambient temperature. It's no good try to use this functionality while you're still wearing the watch - what you end up with is the average temperature between you wrist and the air around you. You first have to take the watch off to find the true temperature. You have to leave it off your wrist for about 20 minutes; a tad slow for it to reset so you aren't going to use it to get instant readings. The thermometer is pretty accurate though.

Barometer

The barometer function is referred as meteo by Tissot, which means that you get an indication of meteorological tendencies. When in barometer mode, the digital display shows you the atmospheric pressure in hectoPascals. The hands of the Tissot T-Touch watch join together and are used to give you an indication of what the weather is like; in the 12 o'clock position the weather indicate stable weather, to the right of 12 indicates improving whereas on the left means deteriorating weather. The further away from 12 the hands are, the more extreme the weather prediction. But what's really clever about the T-Touch is that the watch uses the last 8 hours of data to calculate trends; it isn't just sticking a finger in the air.

Altimeter

This Tissot watch can calculate your approximate altitude. It calculates it by measuring barometric pressure. High and low pressure fronts can affect barometric pressure, so you really need to calibrate the altimeter before you use it. When in altimeter mode the T-Touch calculates your altitude every 10 seconds.

Compass

This must be the coolest function on the watch. Not only can it show you magnetic north it can calculate true north as well! Of course it isn't that simple. In order for the T-Touch to give you an accurate reading for true (geographic) north, you first the Tissot T-Touch what your current magnetic declination is - this is the angle between magnetic and geographic north. True, most of us don't happen to have this information to hand, but you can easily find out on the internet - all you need is your post code. If you do no your declination you can configure the Tissot T-Tissot accordingly, and hey presto, the hands will move away from magnetic north to geographic north. If you don't set the declination, the T-Touch will report magnetic north.

The Tissot T-Touch watch comes in various configurations and colors. The case comes in either stainless steel or titanium. The dial comes in white and silver, though you definitely stick to black. The strap comes in blue or white leather, steel or rubber. The best combination, in my opinion, is the titanium, black face with orange strap - it looks a treat.