Fossil is an American-based company, took the baton of generational succession of Timex in the race for horological relay market share. To highlight the importance of Fossil on the market It is best to let the competition be the ones to talk about it: during Apple Events, the benchmark for Apple Watch sales is those of Rolex, The Swatch Group and Fossil. Fossil is still relevant and should be part of the discussion. It is still one of the top manufacturer of watches worldwide by volume, and contributes to revenue for the Fossil Group’s 2 billion dollars annual revenue.
The watches offered by Fossil range from mechanical to quartz, and from traditional to smartwatches and are available in nearly every department store, for between $100 and $300. The combination of accessibility of prices, accessibility to pricing, and the variety of styles make Fossil’s watches ubiquitousand can be found all over the globe. Should you be overwhelmed with the range of options offered by the brand This guide will aid you.
Brand History
Fossil was established on the 14th of April, 1984. It was founded by American businessman Tom Kartsotis, with their first timepiece being made available in 1985, at the end in the Quartz Crisis. The time was that high-end European brands that made mechanical watches were experiencing declines in sales as consumers changed their preference to more affordable battery-powered watches. Fossil recognized a market opportunity and tapped the mid-century American design aesthetics, paired with low-cost manufacturing in the overseas market and quartz movement. The watch was a success.
Quartz watches that are affordable like Fossil began to gain popularity during the 1980s midway through — especially when they became an integral part of the department store’s jewelry departments. It took just 10 years for Fossil achieve the level of $20 million annually in sales. To further shake up the traditional watch market in the year 1990, Fossil started participating in the famous jewelry and watch trade event Baselworld alongside the traditional Swiss brand watches. Fossil’s highly stylized quartz-based timepiece options created a huge market, offering an alternative that was less costly than high-end European timepieces.
Popularity of Fossil watches grew during the 1990s, with an increase in revenue per year, which led the brand to be an publicly traded company (FOSL) that is listed on NASDAQ. The rise in operating capital enabled the company to expand its product line to include leather accessories such as sunglasses, handbags, and sunglasses. It continued to grow at a steady pace of growth through the 1990s, launching stores with the Fossil brand to strengthen its status as an upscale brand. Around the middle of the 1990s, Fossil began to acquire the rights to manufacture and distribution of watches for fashion labels like Emporio Armani and intellectual property giants like Disney.
Fossil ultimately departed from midcentury designs and moved to more modern designs including their patent-pending “BIG TIC.” (This model uses the traditional minute and hour hands, however, instead of a second hand the dial has an LCD that displays minutes.) Another innovation in this time include the 2003 introduction of the (pre-smartwatch) Fossil Wrist PDA which ran Palm OS. These innovations were just a part of the expanding Fossil brand, which is now as part of Fossil Group. It was the Fossil Group has continued to purchase other brand names in the watch industry, most notably Zodiac and Michele and also manufacturing and licensing from fashion-related brands like Burberry, Diesel, Michale Kors as well as the National Football League.
