A Happy Ending With A Fossil Speedway
One of the series that I haven't talked about on the site before is Fossil Speedway. I don't know many details on this series, but I'm working on it. All I know is there is a few standouts that I've been looking for and I finally bagged one. I also had a Fossil Speedway t'shirt in college, bonus points?
A few weeks ago I picked up this gem on eBay for $20. It was listed just as a Fossil men's watch, no mention of Speedway, obviously it's a bit scratched, needed a battery and the band had to go. I've seen similar models (FS-2899 and FS-2900) all cleaned up with the correct metal band sell for $50 and I've almost bought them before on eBay, but $50 is steep.
Took the watch with me on vacation last week in hopes of finding a replacement band for it at the Fossil outlet store. On the long drive home we stopped at the Fossil Outlet store in Jeffersonville, Ohio looking for a band. I asked the guy at the counter if they sold replacement bands and to my surprise he opened a drawer full of official Fossil replacement bands! So for all those posts about replacement bands, check out your local Fossil store, not sure if the main stores carry them or if it's only the outlet -- either way for $13.50 I got a new dark brown leather band for my previously loved Fossil Speedway FS-2900. Employees at the store put the new band on, I brought the watch home and cleaned up some of the scratches with Brasso and here it is.
Fossil Defender watch FOB DE-1523
Here's an oddball Defender I picked up late last year. Comes with a canvas keychain FOB and the watch trim is painted a military green. I've never seen this in any catalogs or brochures and maybe because it definitely belongs to a niche market of oddball fans (me and probably you).
Watch is model DE 1523. Even though the picture makes the face look huge, the face is not much bigger than any ordinary modern watch, about 43 mm. I've updated the Defender Series Guide to include this new find.
Fossil Defender DE-1523
Fossil Flight Collection Video
Here's a video posted on Fossil’s Facebook and YouTube channels that I can really get behind around regarding their Fossil Flight Collection. Be cooler if the watches were Fossil Defenders from the 90's, but very well done video that embodies that aviation spirit we love!
United Airlines MileagePlus program has Fossil watches
This is not an advertisement in any way, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my Contential frequent flyer points have merged with the United MileagePlus program and the merchandise selections are much better. With Contential One Pass all I ever did with my points was get magazine subscriptions and bid on football tickets.
United MileagePlus currently has 7 men's watches including a Dean Stainless Steel Watch that has been bookmarked in my browser for a long time now. When I first checked the site it was available for 13,400 points and now it's at 10,100 points, it may have something to do with my status in the program, but either way it's a great deal for a $115 watch that I've wanted for sometime now.
Check out the Fossil items here.
Fossil Defender pics from 1999
I posted these on Facebook last week, but here are the high-res versions in a slideshow. I pulled these images from a Fossil Book that I have from Japan. Book is dated 1999 and these pages are last in the book in a section called, The Future. Some of these I've not seen before, but I'm on the hunt now! Below the slideshow I've posted the original scans for those of you who want more details (or can read Japanese).
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
