Watches A to Z: Fossil

Fossil is a well-recognized fashion watch brand.  It was founded in 1984 by Tom and his brother, Kosta, Kartsotis. It's recognized by most watch wearers in the United States. Fossil was a nickname for Kosta Kartsotis because he really liked retro aesthetics. The brand initially focused on importing inexpensive, but well designed, fashion watches for retailers. Fossil adopted collectible tins as packaging for their watches in 1990 and went public in 1993. The brand has grown in popularity since it was founded. But, with retreats in the watch market, it has dropped its forays into Smartwatches and has expanded more into leather goods and sunglasses.

Fossil owns the Fossil, Relic, Skagen, WSI, and Zodiac watch brands and the women's watch brand, Michele. The company also manufactures and distributes Armani Exchange, BMW, Chaps, Diesel, DKNY, Emporio Armani, Michael Kors, and women's watch brands Kate Spade New York and Tory Burch. 

At lower price points, Fossil is also thought to own or supervise the manufacturing of generic quartz watches stamped with FMD on the caseback. Some believe this stamp stands for Fossil Manufacturing Division. I believe this to be the case because--as of a couple of years ago--the warranty service address for FMD watches at Walmart matched the Fossil Headquarters address for North America. FMD makes many of the watches sold under the George brand at Walmart.

Could these George brand FMD watches be made by Fossil?

The Fossil brand makes excellent watches that sell at affordable prices. On Amazon, men's Fossil watches sell for prices between $80 and $350. The most expensive Fossil watches are skeletonized automatics. You can see them at my Amazon affiliate link here. It's very easy to overlook Fossil or denigrate them as a "fashion watch brand," but they make great looking watches that are satisfying to own and wear. 

If you live near an outlet mall with a Fossil outlet store, you should definitely visit. You an often find great deals there.

Reviewing My Men's Relic Sawyer Chronograph Watch

This is a review of the Relic Sawyer that I published on Yahoo Contributors Network a few days ago.  This watch is one that I consider a classic part of my collection.  I'm reprinting the entire review here:

Places like Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Hampton Roads are world renowned naval ports. They are also places where the Relic Men's Sawyer Chronograph watch (Model ZR66037) would look right at home. This quartz chronograph sports a battleship gray band, bezel, and 40 millimeter diameter face around a gleaming, 12 millimeter thick, stainless steel case. The look is beyond nautical. It's a naval warfare look for sure.

The Relic Sawyer

While style is important, this watch is also quite functional. The hour and minute hands have inlaid luminous material and the second hand is black. Each hour is marked by a luminous baton and small dot. Each minute is marked with a short white hash mark. The date is readable and positioned at a canted angle between the four and five o'clock batons. The 20 millimeter wide silicon strap is supremely comfortable and generously-sized to fit most wrists.

Relic Sawyer at the Battleship North Carolina

Three subdials handle chronograph functions. At the six o'clock position, seconds are counted by a small white hand in a subdial with only the bottom half of the subdial. Minute counting is handled at the 9 o'clock position in a circular subdial with numerals for 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes and hash marks at five minute intervals. Finally, twenty-four hour time is provided by the subdial on the right at three o'clock. The Chronometer will time events for up to an hour. But, the 24-hour subdial provides only the time and is not part of the chronometer feature set. The crown for this watch is flanked by buttons to start, stop, and reset the chronograph subdials.

This Relic watch does have a few weak points. First, there is some looseness to the rotating bezel. If you tap the bezel, it will click like an old-time telegraph station. For the steampunk set, the ability to tap out Morse code could be feature. But, the rest of us might find it a slightly annoying lapse in quality for a watch at the top end of the Relic product line. Full retail for Model ZR66037 is around $95. The second flaw enhances the look of the watch at the expense of functionality. The flat black numbers on the bezel are simply hard to read at a glance. Overall, these a fairly minor criticisms of a novel approach to the diver-style chronometer.

The Relic Sawyer is a fine looking watch and a great addition to any casual collectors watch box. If it had a cool nautical name, it would probably cost five times as much.