As with just about any other fan of watches, we here at WWR like seeing what’s coming up in terms of new designs. These days, that usually shows up in the smaller independent brands that pop up, but now and again the larger ones hit us with something as well. Now, we’ve got something that sort of straddles both of those worlds, in the Fossil Design Major II.
In this case, we’ve got a large brand (Fossil) giving an untested design intern (Chris Cho) the opportunity to put his pencil to something that shows up in stores. This, of course, is the Fossil Design Major II. With a 46mm steel case, Cho had a lot of space to work with on the dial. This is used to good effect with several layers, applied indices, and several complications.
While the details we were given on the Fossil Design Major II are light, we can tell you’ve got a 24-hour complication (over at 3 o’clock), and chronograph seconds (6 o’clock) and minutes (9 o’clock), along with a date display that doesn’t cut off any of the numerals. Hopefully, those numbers, and the Flinger-Style handset, are full of some good luminous paint.
Surrounding that you’ve got a very toothy and knurled bezel (our guess is it’s fixed, unless they wanted some fidget component) , and the crown and pushers both pick up on that knurled detail. Set into the bezel is (again, we’re guessing here, based on the price point) a mineral crystal, and you’ve got a steel bracelet paired into the lugs.
With a variety of finishes on the watch (brushed, matte, and polish) there’s a lot going on here. I think the polished accents will give it a solid glint when the light hits it, brightening up what could otherwise be a darker, duller watch. The Fossil Design Major II is available now for $165 and is a numbered limited edition. fossil.com
Watch Overview
- Brand & Model: Fossil Design Major II
- Price: $165
- Who we think it might be for: You want to vote your support for a new designer – and you like your chronographs huge
- Would I buy one for myself based on what I’ve seen? Not really – chronographs this large are simply not my jam
- If I could make one design suggestion, it would be: Give your next design intern a bigger challenge, in the form of a 40mm (or smaller) case size to work with
- What spoke to me the most about this watch: For all it has going on, it just really looks like the Fossil watches I remember seeing in the stores “back in the day”
FSL3009448 FSL3019805-D FSL3019805-D FSL3019805-D
