Earlier this week, we brought you word of a new motorsport-oriented chronograph (which you can see right here). Realistically, that makes sense, and chronographs really found their home in car racing. Some were even named after race tracks, even if the complication was invented well before cars existed. Just last month, everyones favorite affordable watch brand brought a new platform out – the Fossil Sport Tourer.
A recognizable icon
By this, we don’t mean that the Fossil Sport Tourer is intrinsically an icon – at least not yet. What we mean here, is the basic premise of the watch. You’ve got a tri-compax layout that is immediately familiar, as it is a look that many iconic chronographs have adopted. This means you’ve got a lumed main handset and running seconds at the 6 o’clock position. For the chronograph, you get the central seconds hand, a chrono minutes register at 12 o’clock, and chrono hours at 9 o’clock. So yes, while you can time speeds using the tachymeter scale, you can also time long-running stuff, like a cross-country flight.
Speaking of the tachymeter scale…
You might be wondering just how in the world you can use the one on the Fossil Sport Tourer, particularly when there are just numerals, and not any particular units of measure called out on the bezel. Funny thing with that – the units don’t matter. Whether you’re going in miles or kilometers per hour, the scale works just the same. What you do is start the chronograph up when you start, and then stop it when you hit the mile (or kilometer) marker. Whatever number the chrono seconds hand points that, that’s your speed, in the given unit of measure you were pacing against. Clever simplicity at its finest.
Who is the Fossil Sport Tourer for?
That’s a fair question, and one you should be asking about any watch you see. And, more specifically, is this the watch for me? Chronographs can be delightfully complex movements, and if that’s what draws you to them, then you probably would want a mechanical version, though those bring more expense. For the Fossil Sport Tourer, this is aimed at someone who wants the look (without the pricetag), as it features a quartz movement.
Along with bringing the price down, quartz movements also bring along a reliable accuracy that mechanical movements are going to be envious of (unless they carry COSC chronometer certification). There again, though, all quartz chronographs are not equal. Many are fully quartz, which means that, when you reset the chronograph, the seconds hand sweeps around the dial to hit zero.
On the other hand, watches like the Fossil Sport Tourer actually feature a mecha-quartz movement. This means that, when you reset the chronograph, the seconds hand snaps back immediately to zero. This allows you to start timing again more quickly, as well as giving you a delightful thing to watch. It also means that you get a delightful, tactile click when you use the pushers that flank the crown. In other words, if you’re going for a quartz chronograph, this type of movement is going to be much more enjoyable to use.
Wrapping Things Up
You might be wondering how we know all of that on the movement, as it’s not specifically called out on the product pages. As it turns out, we’ve got a review unit in at the moment, and have been playing around with it some. So, yeah – be on the lookout for that full hands-on review soon. In the meantime, if you want to strap on a Fossil Sport Tourer for your spring time road trips, they’re available now for $195 on a strap (leather or silicone) or $220 on the bracelet. Check out the full range at fossil.com
Fossil Sport Tourer Tech Specs
- Case Size: 42MM
- Movement: Chronograph
- Platform: SPORT TOURER
- Strap Material: Stainless Steel
- Strap Color: Silver
- Case Water Resistance: 5 ATM
- Case Material: Stainless Steel
- Case Color: Silver
- Dial Color: Blue
- Strap Fashion Color: Silver-Tone
- Interchangeable Compatibility: 22MM
- Strap Width: 22MM
- Closure: Single Pusher Foldover Clasp
- Strap Inner Circumference: 200+/- 5MM
- Crystal Type: Mineral
- Battery Type: SR936SW
