the old bucket list of watches

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To compare a watch to something on your bucket list is probably a bit much, but did I get your attention? We all have those watches amongst other things we are always on the hunt for. It’s the thrill of the hunt that keeps us going and it’s the most fun. I have watches that I’ve hunted for years only to wear them once or twice, but at least I have them. Two such watches on my “bucket list” of watches that I would pay anything for showed up in the same day on eBay and I pulled the trigger.

Defender DF-1003
When I first starting hunting & collecting Defenders in 2009, this Defender showed up on eBay for $50 and wasn’t sure the rarity or the value. Believe it or not Defenders were selling on eBay for $10-$30 all day long, this was before a wonderful Fossil Collector’s Club website came online and prices starting going up! Who is that guy? What a jerk! Anyways $50 was too high and as the auction closed for about $56 I remember thinking that’s the one I want.

Fast forward 7 years later to a rainy, autumn Sunday morning in Cleveland, Ohio and as I’m sipping my coffee while ignoring my children who are playing Minecraft in the other room, this Defender shows up at the top of my feed! Buy it now for $59.99, done! It wasn’t until afterwards that I saw the pictures of the crown being broken and even though the listing said the watch kept time, it doesn’t! I don’t care, I have it and if you follow us on Facebook you’ve probably seen that some of these chronos from Fossil are all related and all have the same movement. Anyone know a good horologist?

Fossil Automatic Breaker LE-1015
When this watch first hit the waves in 2013…get it waves? I took notice and so did many other watch collectors and blogs. By Googling Fossil LE-1015 you’ll get a taste of the torture that we’ve experienced for many years now because these watches are highly reviewed, very expensive (for a Fossil) and extremely limited. Now and again they come up on forums for about the original retail price of $445, which is too rich for the blood of this father of 2 in the great Midwest.

LE-1015 has been on my eBay watch list for years now and has never come up and it still hasn’t come up. While working on a Sunday night (living the dream!) and waiting for files to come in, I started browsing on eBay and this watch in it’s orange waterproof case appeared as the picture with the WORST title ever for this watch – no one would know what the watch was based on the title of "Fossil Watch Thin Blue Line Collection". I felt the rush of anxiety hit me, was this it, really? Checked out the seller profile, seems legit -- view all the pictures, okay and I hit buy it now for $89. I didn’t even double check that I had $89 in my account – bought!

On the other side of obtaining these 2 rare watches, I do find myself not searching as much for other watches – I had a major score in one day and I know that’s rare, it’s nice to take a break from screen time and just enjoy having the watches and taking in the holiday season with a rare watch underneath my ugly Christmas sweater. 

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!

A Happy Ending With A Fossil Speedway

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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.

Official replacement band idea

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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!

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 Coffee Shop

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When I started this site back in February 2010, I was mainly thinking it could be site to talk about my favorite Fossil watches from the 1990's. As I started writing and sorting through my collections I have found that my passion for Fossil runs past watches and into the oddball merchandise they produced and so does yours! The stores and displays in the 1990's had some great merchandise. Some of the items I have and have seen I am not even sure if you could buy it in the stores, but the internet and collector's forums have really allowed us to find some great stuff. The past few months I have sorted through my collection and hope to have more regular post on watches and of course the oddball advertising pieces that I really love.

Wanted to highlight a recent eBay find - a Fossil Coffee Shop mug. I have only seen 2 of these and the first one sold for $30 on eBay. I paid $9.50 for this and it's well worth it. The mug is white and is styled after the diner coffee cups from the 40's and 50's. No other coffee mug is styled after this one. The logo is a circle with a worker and it says, "Servin it up since 1954"

Servin it up since 1954

Dr. Pepper Limited Edition

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Did anyone else see the recent auction for #1 out of a 3000 item run for the Dr. Pepper Limited Edition watch and kit? Amazing auction and it finally ended at $305. Totally shocked at the price, but I am thinking it's due to #1 number and not so much because it's Dr. Pepper. I've seen these on eBay before, but never with the cool kit and the sweater & towel. Very cool auction.

Winning bidder want to give us more details?

1998 Fossil Collectors Club Kit

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In my attempt to get all the Fossil Collector's Club Kits without breaking the bank, I got my hands on the following set from 1998. It came up on eBay for less than $10, but of course it doesn't include the train-themed pocket watch. Still a pretty neat piece though.

I do have some questions on this piece such as:

  1. Was there any other documentation or brochures for 1998?
  2. Anyone have the pocketwatch for sale? Or at least some pictures to share?


Fossil Airplane Watches

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Here's an auction that has peaked my interest. 4 different versions of the Fossil airplane watch. 2 of them are limited edition versions, one being from the Around the World Series (LE-9451) and the other was the first limited edition watch ever done by Fossil in 1992, the gold airplane on a skelton face (SK-5038). This is the last watch on the right. I'll definitely be watching this auction (and I missed it).

The airplane watches on eBay lately have been doing well, much better than Captain Fossil :)

Fossil Appliances Watch

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Saw this watch on eBay this week and I fell in love with it. This watch is pretty nifty and I’ve never seen one like it before. The shipping price is a little high ($14 really?), but overall I think it’s worth it for a nice piece if it doesn't go higher than $20 for the watch.

I don’t know much else about it, but it was a limited release at 20,000 pieces. It's amazing how many limited release watches are out there that I am still discovering all these years later.

Fossil TV LE-9450 not 9447 as the tag indicates