If you can actually look at the tires you are interested it may help. I got Schwalbe Marathons after having Continental City Contacts, the ones that came stock on my LHT. Both the Continentals and the Schwalbes were 26x1.5 but the Schwalbes were much beefier, much. They are wider and taller than my original Continentals. The Continentals were undersized for a 1.5. I am loving the Schwalbes.

I was actually trying to order the 2.0s, but accidentally ordered the wrong ones and got 1.5s. Since they were larger than the Continentals, I kept them and have been very happy with them.

In other words, the Schwalbes in 1.6 may be similar to your Continentals, depending on which ones you currently have. You may wish to measure the actual width of the ties you have to see if they actually measure 1.75. My Continentals were under 1.5 despite being 26x1.5s.