Fossil BQ2796 Easton Mens Watch

A world-famous watch and jewellery brand does not always have to be in the high-price segment. Fossil Incorporated is impressive proof of this. For over 25 years, Fossil has been offering jewellery and watches of absolutely solid quality at affordable prices. Reason enough to include this brand in our series on the history of well-known jewellery and watch brands. The American company Fossil Incorporated, based in Richardson, Texas, was founded in 1984. Initially, the company was purely a watch manufacturer whose mission was to bring affordable yet stylish watches to the market. Over the years, other product lines such as jewellery, handbags, eyewear, leather goods such as belts etc. as well as shoes and clothing were added. In addition to its own watch and jewellery collections, the company also owns licences from numerous other brand manufacturers such as Diesel, Burberry, Armani and DKNY. The Fossil brand itself is not the only one in the company's portfolio; over the years, Relic, Zodiac and Abacus have been added to the portfolio.

Fossil is also known for its retro design watches, with which the company has celebrated its greatest successes to date. In particular, the company's own solutions, such as watches with analogue hour and minute displays but digital second hands, quickly became popular worldwide. Fossil also developed and launched special functions such as a display that can change colour. In 2005, the company surprised the professional world with the first PDA in the form of a wristwatch. The in-house design team, which is inspired by the latest fashion and lifestyle trends on the market and incorporates these into Fossil products, is now recognised worldwide. However, care is always taken not to depart from Fossil's own product and design philosophy, so that a homogeneous overall image is maintained. Fossil also develops products for brands that the company has licensed. In this case, the company's own designers work closely with the licensor's designers. Naturally, the quality and durability of the products are also taken into account in all the design work. The Fossil brand in particular, with its rustic, retro-style design, cannot afford to spoil this first impression with inferior quality.
Let's now take a closer look at the company's history: shortly after it was founded in 1984, Fossil specialised in the then still relatively new trend of fashion watches, which was significantly influenced by companies such as Swatch.

Fossil quickly realised that watches were no longer a product that people were happy to spend a lot of money on and then wear for a lifetime. The development time of the first Fossil brand watches is therefore relatively short, they are launched on the market just one year after the company is founded. In order to set itself apart from other manufacturers in the fashion watch sector, Fossil also developed its own packaging in the following years. The artistically crafted retro-style metal boxes in which the Fossil watches are packaged have since become world-famous. By the early 1990s, the company had become so well known - thanks in part to its presence at numerous internationally renowned trade fairs - that it developed and launched products outside the watch sector for the first time. In 1992, the first leather accessories such as belts were launched on the market. The year 1993 marks a turning point for Fossil in economic terms. In this year, the company goes public and is listed on the NASDAQ, the best-known stock index in the USA, for the first time. The range of accessories is continuously expanded, including wallets, key rings and diaries. During this time, Fossil also pushes ahead with international sales and founds its own company to distribute Fossil products in Europe. Finally, in 1995, sunglasses are added to the range. At the same time, the first outlet store is opened in the USA.

The Internet has played an important role in Fossil's success right from the start. Fossil opened its first online shop back in 1996, when other companies were not even thinking about an Internet presence, let alone an online shop for the successful sale of their own products. This makes the company one of the pioneers of e-commerce, i.e. electronic commerce via the Internet. However, the company did not rest on its laurels, but simultaneously expanded its offline business with additional shops throughout the USA. The first partnership with another company came about in 1997, when a contract was signed with the luxury brand Armani for the development of branded watches. The following year, Fossil opened its first shop in Europe in the Netherlands. Also in this year, the so-called Bic Tic was developed - a hybrid watch that combines analogue and digital technology. At the turn of the millennium, the first items of clothing were finally launched on the market and Fossil opened its own shops in the UK and Germany at the same time. The first Fossil jewellery line was also launched in 2000.

The beginning of the new millennium was characterised by strong expansion: Fossil acquired several watch brands from Switzerland, such as Antima and Zodiac. In addition, lucrative licence agreements are concluded with numerous well-known brand manufacturers around the world, further consolidating the company's position on the global market. In 2005, Fossil finally introduces a world first: Customers can design their own Fossil watch on the company's website. In this year, the company also achieved annual sales of over one billion dollars for the first time. And this is what Fossil is today: a globally renowned brand company that specialises in the development, production and distribution of high-quality fashion products of all kinds. In addition to watches and jewellery, the range also includes handbags, leather accessories, eyewear, clothing and shoes. Fossil employs over 8,000 people worldwide and is represented in more than 100 countries around the world. The company now has ten brands of its own and is a licencee of 13 other brands, some of which are world-famous, including names such as Philippe Starck, Diesel, DKNY, Adidas and Armani.