My intern Marcus flashed his forearm across the lunch table last week to pull his sleeve back and show me a Fossil chronograph he’d snagged used for forty bucks, grin as wide as it could go across his face asking me if he got screwed or if he’d actually won the dang thrift store. I stared at it a full sixty seconds before I responded. To those of you who know me well, that should paint the picture of where I stand on these watches really well because I normally form an opinion and let you know it before the salesman even finishes their pitch.
Here’s where we stand. Fossil is a perfectly serviceable watch brand in the same way that a Honda Civic is a respectable car. Sure there’s not some virtuoso waxing poetic over their weekend commute, and nobody’s going to inherit it from grandpa and sob into the velvet cushion, but it fires up every morning and it doesn’t require a second mortgage to do it. Before you folks get all judgy on me in the comments that’s not meant to be demeaning, thats literally all most people need from the machine on their wrist.
TLDR; Its great for what it is, but dont expect much more than that.
Cost vs what you’re paying for
Ok, math.
Say what I say. A brand new Fossil will set you back eighty to one hundred eighty bucks depending on which line of whatever you’re into, and a giant chunk of that cash is going straight into the design department. Case shape, dial artistry, strap selection, everything you see on the outside. Very little of that two hundred dollars is actually going to cover the machinery inside. Nine times out of ten its either a Miyota or Seiko movement; both perfectly acceptable Japanese quartz movements that Fossil probably paid between eight and fifteen dollars for wholesale. Again, not faulting them for this thats just how the mid range watch game works, I’m just stating fact they mark that baby up but they’re not advertising that the same way they tell you the whole deal was handmade by monks.
I told Marcus hell won the thrift store that day because he essentially paid the movement cost and got the artwork and strap and the previous owner’s remorse completely free. Full price that watch was a hundred and thirty bucks which means your wearing fifty bucks of someone elses sucker priced onto your wrist. Heck had he paid full price I probably would’ve still told him he won, but waiting for somebody else to not want it paid for his enjoyment of it. The trick to Fossil, buying it off mileage or on sale, never at full price tag. Because full price Fossil is boutique watch prices for a watch that is boutique fucking nothing.
Where they struggle though, and they will struggle, is with the strap and crown. I’ve owned three fossils over the years, currently have one on my person now. Field watch with a canvas strap. Wear it on work sites because I literally couldn’t care less if it gets covered in joint compound or washes off when the paint does. Leather strap on watch number one cracked on me after eighteen months. Not through heavy use, just because it was leather and that leather strap probably cost the company four bucks to manufacture. Replaced it with a twelve dollar strap from Amazon resale and got another three years life out of that casing. Watch cost per wear on that bad boy, actually pulled out my phone and calculated it because I did the math on a napkin in my truck and was blatantly wrong twice, came out to just eleven cents. Eleven cents to tell the time and not look like I won it out of a gumball machine.
Second weak point is the crown. The little ass dial you pull out to set your time and date. It’s gotten loose on two of the three I’ve owned within the first year. Not broken right off mind you, but loose enough where you start getting anxious about dunking it or swimming with it. That being said Fossil has a two year warranty covering manufacturing defects and both times I’ve had to contact them about it they handled it with zero effort on my part. No you didn’t order this online. Nope I didn’t keep my receipt. They fixed it, free of charge, because it was supposed to work like that for atleast two years. A company that will own up to their mistakes and fix them without making you jump through hoops is priceless regardless of what their prices are.
What it’s good for, what it isn’t
Alright, verdict. For arguments sake I literally mean verdict. Fossil, as a company, makes great wrist wear for the every day man. The man who wears a watch to work and thinks about it when they need the time, not when they’re checking social media every five minutes. Its durable as hell, gets you through a work site or a night shift bartending or getting slammed against your car door forty times a week. It is not, has never been, and will never be useful at your wedding ceremony. The watch you want your son or daughter to fight you over someday. COMPLETELY different ballgame, and the mistake most guys make is expecting a hundred dollar timepiece to fill the emotional role of a thousand dollar hugger hugger.
What would it take for me to change my mind about their ventures into the automatic and fancier side. The watches creeping past the two hundred dollar mark? Production quality of the movement. If they started putting actual higher end automatic movements in there instead of the base level Miyota with a snazzier suit on I’d eat my words on the whole high end spiel. Case is getting better, design is getting sharper and thinner, movement still costs them about the same as it did ten years ago and that right there is where they lose me. You don’t go from a every man brand to special just because you tack more zeros on the price, show me that on the inside and maybe I’ll hop on board.
Two years, three Fossils counted as positives. One flashed on the negatives. That one was all me by the way. Yellow colorway, suck it up and deal with it kind of lime green. Colors I knew at the time and know now didn’t suit me at all. Sat on the shelf for a month because it screamed at me whenever I looked at it. Bargain was too pretty too pass up and I wore it four times. Sold it for a loss. Should’ve listened to myself the first time rules apply to everyone; including me. Watch worked great. Didn’t love wearing it. Doesn’t matter how good your tool is if you don’t like using it. Happens to the best of us.
Fossil makes great fucking watches. Don’t listen to anyone who says different.
Again, as long as you know what youre getting into. They are an every man brand that scratches that wrist tattoo itch. Buy it on sale or used, hell Amazon resale is almost always worth checking out for styles you know you’ll wear. Just never pay those guys full price. Your simply overpaying for trendy.
You’ll end up between .40 and .80 cents a wear over the lifetime of your purchase. More than anything else in your wardrobe can promise. Not messing with you guys. Literally the full verdict.
Liam is a sparky from Birmingham who got into charity shopping during one very skint year and never really stopped. He works out the cost per wear on everything he buys, sometimes out loud, sometimes wrongly the first time.
