Fossil Winter Catalog 95-96
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 - Universal Monster Series
Here's a nice timely post about 2 weeks past Halloween. I've always liked these watches, but have never purchased any of them. Mainly because they are typically expensive and sold as collectibles online. A few of them had a very limited release and were released under license from Universal Studios. There are other versions of several of these watches, but I don't think they belong in the original Universal Monster Series because they are newer than the ones listed below.
The Universal Monster series was released in 1995 and each watch included a pewter figurine of the "monster". None of the "newer" ones included such a figurine.
- Dracula-The Vampire Thriller: LI-1350
- 1000 of these produced.
- Frankenstein: LI-1285
- 15,000 of these produced.
- Features Boris Karloff's version of Frankenstein.
- Godzilla: LI-1297
- 1000 of these produced.
- King Kong: LI-1277
- 10,000 of these produced.
Official replacement band idea
I get a lot of emails (and spam) around replacement bands for Fossil watches. We've gotten some great suggestions and comments, but my new trend is now buying old broken Fossil watches and using the bands. I don't have a lot of money and I love eBay/garage sales and plus let's face it -- Fossil made some hideous watches in the 90's and they use the same bands as the good ones.
Recently I purchased a broken Starmaster watch on eBay. I verified with the seller that the band was official and $11 later I have a new band (and a broken Starmaster). The band nicely replaced a broken band on my favorite Defender watch DE-1500.
The timing is nice because I am now going to sport this watch for the next 2 weeks on my trip to London.
Fossil DE-1500 and an official leather band!
More Fossil Defender updates and a small rant
The Fossil Defender Series Guide has been updated with 3 new images. Thanks to a new reader Adam we now have a better image of the DE-1507 and new DE-1505 and DE-1520 pictures, which I didn't have before. Adam also sent some pictures of the original box for his DE-1507. For those of you who don't know much about Defenders they came in special cases, not the tins we're used to seeing. Defender was one of the 8 genres of watches Fossil offered in the 90's and they were a bit more premium than the normal releases.
Planet Fossil: Fifth and final Around the World Series watches
Finally back in action and I wanted to highlight the remaining watches in the Around the World Series. I've already discussed 2 of the 5 watches so far. Here's the breakdown of watches
Streamliner
Aero-Pilot
Planet Fossil
The Planet Fossil was released in December 1994 and came with a lapel pin and packaged in a globe theme collectors tin. In my opinion of the 5 watches this is the least attractive to me -- maybe it's because mine doesn't look like the ones in the brochures or maybe because it's been worn and needs a good cleaning. Either way this watch was the last in the Around the World Series and was limited to only 20,000 made.
As with the Captain Fossil watch I am really in love with the tin for this watch. The lid is a piece of art with a young couple staring off into the world. They did a nice job incorporating the "around the world" tagline -- be nice if this tin could be made into a poster. All around the sides of the tin are random pictures of people doing different actions with a globe.
This was the hardest watch for me to find. I don't know what that means as far as collectibility, but it's definitely the oddball in the family.
Watch details:
Planet Fossil Limited Edition Collector's Watch.
Watch #5 in a 5 item set of Around the World Series.
Original cost $70 USD
This watch is #7034 of 20000 made
Model #LE-9452
Fossil Defender Updates and 1995 Catalog pics
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
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
The New Automatic: No Battery Required - Men's Automatic ME1033
Collecting Fossil watches and advertising memorabilia has kept my collection solely based on the 90's. In an effort to keep my collection nice, I don't normally wear these watches when I'm out. I look to supplement my collection with more modern Fossil watches that have the look and colors that work best for me and can take a little beating on the job.
One of these more recent purchases in my collection is this Men's Automatic Fossil Watch, more specifically it's the Automatic Champagne Twist watch ME1033. Watch was originally marketed in early 2008 and it was the flagship of the Automatic line at $175.
Watch is one of my favorites simply because of it's subtle automotive theme. The secondhand gauge hits a big 60 and the automatic portion of the watch is gauged by full or empty. It's a beautiful watch, has a great classic look, but it's huge. The heaviness of the watch (10.56 ounces) lets you know it's still on your wrist and the thickness of the case (15 millimeters) ensures that when people see you that the first thing they look at is your watch.
One of the best parts of this watch has to be the Automatic feature. Having dozens (or hundreds) of watches requires some upkeep. A stock of batteries is always on hand and I dread Daylight Savings time changes, but this watch makes all these easy. A full charge last about 2 days and changing the time from a dead stop is extremely easy.
The watch has a lot going for it, but unfortunately I don't think it ever sold well. In January of 2008 I received an email from Fossil announcing it's arrival for $175 and in the summer months of 2008 I saw my local Fossil outlet store had about 6 of these watches for $70. This past summer I saw some of these watches still in the showcase there, they also had different variations of this watch. I saw a black one with red highlights and it was even cheaper, it was pretty "interesting" and sold for $57 at the store.
Watch details:
Model Number: ME1033
Case diameter: 41 millimeters
Case Thickness: 15 millimeters
item-weight: 10.56 Ounces
Water resistant depth: 50 Meters
Fossil Solar Watches
Taken from the Fossil Limited Edition Checklist we know that there are 4 known different Fossil Solar watches that were in limited production. These watches were released in 1994 and other solar powered watches made by Fossil are not known. The appeal of these watches are great much like the Automatic watches. They are virtually maintenance free and by not having a battery it makes the task of opening up the back of the watch nonexistent, which is a major plus for me.
Recently I came across a men's Fossil Solar watch on eBay. This watch is model LE-9439 and it's listed as Basic. The other variants in the Solar family are Retro and Sport. The Basic model also features the date. This watch originally cost $125!
With a few hours in the sun it ran for over 24 hours. The watch is water resistant to 3 ATM.
I'd love to see if anyone has one of these watches possibly with paperwork or maybe even a package that it came in. I'm keeping my eyes open.
Return of Fossil Defender series?
While browsing through the latest Fossil catalog in the mail last night I came across something familiar. Check out the latest catalog by visiting Fossil.com and check out page 32. Fossil is now promoting the Vintaged Bronze collection and oddly enough a-lot of those watches resemble Fossil Defender watches from the 90's. Now the coloring is different, but the face of the watch and the font of the numbers is exactly the same.
Look at one example. The image below is Fossil Defender DE-1501. Nice watch and very unique.
Fossil DE-1501
Here's the new version from the Fossil Vintaged Bronze Collection DE5009.
Vintaged Bronze DE5009
So not exactly the same, but really close and did you notice the model numbers? Fossil Defenders were always DExxxx or DFxxxx and look at the model numbers of these watches. They have ranges in the DE1000's and DE5000's. Someone at Fossil is respecting the Defender Series.
Click Fossil Vintaged Bronze to view the latest selection on Fossil's site and click Fossil Defender to view our Fossil Defender guide.