Fossil Times: the importance of a newsletter

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Back in the 80's my friends and I had a Def Leppard club. We signed our names in a notebook and listened to Hysteria on loop as we swung on the swingset in my friend's backyard. One thing the Def Leppard club didn't have and it led to its demise was a newsletter. Yes a tangible newsletter filled with Def Leppard goodness and mailed to it's members on semi-regular basis -- this would have been key to keeping the club alive!

One of the reasons the Fossil Collectors Club is still around albeit via fans is because of the Fossil Times newsletter that I found a few years ago when I purchased the 1995 Collectors Club kit on eBay. As my family grows and the clutter is creeping like The Blob into every room of our house I almost forgot I had this issue until this past week when I started digging through my collection.

From 1994 to 1998 the Fossil Collectors Club mailed out 3-4 issues a year to it's collectors. The newsletters had all the Fossil goodness you would expect including spotlight characters, limited edition release information, sneak previews and even one that announced the upcoming Defender line - xoxo.

Any good collectors newsletter should feature the collector of the month and the Fossil Times did that too. We should start one here. Our Facebook group is growing and some of the members have more watches than I do! Something to consider....

For your visual enjoyment I have scanned this issue of the Fossil Times that started it all. Volume 1 Issue 3 circa 1994. My only question is what happened to Larry Clark?

Some well needed updates and new Fossil Limited Edition Checklist

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First of all, Happy Autumn! It's been a busy few months and I want to thank some of you for reaching out to me -- great to see passion and interest with our little site and also being envious of some of your finds. I've been going through my Fossil stuff and created a list of topics to talk about and I WILL be more active on the site, forum and Facebook page during the fall and winter months. Once the weather turns here in the great Northeast, the bikes, the kids toys and my 1958 Chevy go into storage and we begin the hibernation process until April. It's really a great time of year (until it snows).

Anyways onto the updates.

I've updated the Fossil Defender guide with some recent additions from eBay and my personal collection. You'll find more recent pricing and some additional models that I had no clue existed. I've recently picked up a few Defenders on eBay that I'll be posting about soon. One of the Defenders DF-2001 has all the paperwork, manual, felt box and a nice little pillow. I've been after this one for years!

The forum. The discussion forum doesn't get a whole lot of traffic and I am going to start posting and encouraging more conversations there. A long time collector emailed me some pics of his massive collection that is for sale and I'm in process now of gathering up the images and listing out the pricing. I encourage you to do the same. As much as I love eBay, I hate the fee structure and dealing with 0 feedback bidders, so if we could buy/sell/trade watches in the forum it's a great example of a community and it's free. Go for it! Also a great place for general conversations especially if you don't use Facebook.

Limited Edition Checklist. An ex-Fossil employee met up with us on Facebook and one of his first orders of business was to update the checklist. I admit the original one I had on there was just a copy of a checklist I found in some old Fossil literature. It could be a full-time job to update this checklist because of the massive amount of Limited Editions out there! Our new friend has done the hard work and here's your new updated checklist!

New Fossil Limited Edition Check List

Finally just a reminder that there is a Facebook group out there for Fossil Collectors. There is a bit more activity on there and more day to day type of posts. I've gotten a few emails from people saying they aren't on Facebook and not to focus on it, I get that, but if you are on Facebook please consider joining our group and adding to the discussions.

Happy Collecting!

Fossil Winter Catalog 95-96

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Please enjoy. I find this catalog very useful in research and overall nostalgia. The images are rather large in the slideshow below and I know this -- I did it to showcase the model numbers and prices that are in Deutsche Marks. I've also posted the gallery along with a few others in the main navigation of the site under Catalog Scans.

Fossil Defender Updates and 1995 Catalog pics

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I have some updates for you and 2 really cool scans on the Fossil Defender series.

On the top of the site you'll see a permanently housed link called Fossil Defender Series. This link contains a basic guide of Fossil Defender watches that I come across. Some have been emailed by you, some are from catalogs, some are from my personal collection and most are from eBay auctions. I don't post prices there because of 2 reasons.

  • eBay prices are sporadic, seen the same watch range from $10-$90 for no reason

  • I don't want to dictate the market and give sellers a guide on what they should list for.

The other update I wanted to share is 2 scans from the Fossil 1995-96 winter catalog. I found 2 catalogs on eBay and I will be using these a lot in the coming weeks/months/years to showcase some of the cool items Fossil did in the mid-nineties. I've already learned a lot and I can't wait to share it with you and hopefully get some great feedback. Today I have scanned the only 2 pages of Fossil Defender watches.

Fossil Pocket Watches

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In the past I have had a few questions come to me on Fossil pocket watches. In addition Fossil pocket watches generally show up in the search results of the site as well -- so there's an interest in the community. Personally I am not a fan, but I know Fossil has done some pocket watches in the past and some of them were limited releases. Some of the limited releases appear on the Fossil Limited Edition Checklist.

Later models (post-1995) tend to appear on eBay and are usually fairly expensive. The Harry Potter Quidditch pocket watch is probably the most expensive one I've seen and has the coolest packaging. Fossil Defender also had 2 pocketwatches - the DE1522 and the DE1523. Both of which are one our Fossil Defender Series page

A few months ago I provided my limited knowledge over to someone over at Antique Pocket Watch and they wrote a really brilliant article on Fossil pocket watches that I highly recommend reading. I normally would provide a hotlink, but since they never acknowledged my site or the checklist in their article or even a THANK YOU, I'll simply tell you to copy and paste this URL in your browser and check it out.

http://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/fossil-pocket-watches.html

Fossil Limited Edition Watch Check List

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Found this handy document in my 1995 Fossil Collector's Club kit the other day. Forgot it was there and it's a nice listing of all the limited edition watches Fossil did from their first limited edition (SK 5038) in March 1992 up until LE 9457 Rodeo Watch done in December 1994. Anything after that we'll have to amend this as we go!

Amendment in 2012 - In our Facebook group is an ex-Fossil employee. He graciously helped us put together a new version of the limited edition check list below with many, many additions. Happy collecting!

Newest Version 2012: Fossil Limited Edition Check List (excel version)

Archived Version 2010: Fossil Limited Edition Check List (excel version)

Fossil Limited Edition Check List (original scan)

Guide to the Fossil Defender Series

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The Underground Fossil Collectors Club gets a lot of traffic from Google searches looking for information on Fossil Defender or Fossil Defender Watches. Going forward and for the rest of my life as I get information on Fossil Defender watches I am going to post a guide for these watches. In the guide we'll have a picture, description with model number. The guide will be permanently located as a navigation item on the top of the site.

Guide to Fossil Defender Series watches