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Fossil
There was a time when most people received a watch for high school
graduation or some other significant occasion and wore it for many years,
usually until it was lost or no longer kept time.
Then you got another one. But only one.
Today, though, many people treat watches as fashion accessories. Tim Hale, senior vice president
and image director for fashion-watch manufacturer Fossil, estimates that each potential buyer in his
company’s market owns from three to six watches. And that’s conservative. “It’s an impulse buy.
There’s a sweet spot for the price point, and that’s where we are,” says Hale of Fossil’s $55 to $105
watches.
But more than price makes people covet Fossil watches enough to garner sales that exceeded $300
million worldwide in 1998. Swatch may have introduced the concept watch as fashion. But Fossil
came onto the market shortly afterward, differentiating its product as a classic-styled product
wrapped in a highly desirable package.
“We offer a quality watch with the best technology available at a good price point. But then we wrap
it in something that is desirable and collectible—a tin,” Hale explains. The idea for the tin emerged
when Hale and the company founders explored packaging ideas that would convey the brand’s
American-heritage quality. At the turn of the nineteenth century, marketers frequently used tins for
packaging, so it was an understandable language in the retail environment. But as soon as plastics
developed, the tin was abandoned in favor of clamshell packaging.
Designers who create Fossil tins and
watches draw inspiration and color
guidance from designs that originated
in the 1940s and 1950s.
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Fossil’s first tins were flat and rectangular, each
designed to hold one watch laid flat. But the
company quickly realized the package’s intrinsic
merchandising ability and value to the customer.
Designer: Tim Hale
Illustrator: Randy Isom
Charles Spencer Anderson designed eight of these
1991 designs for Fossil.
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“The tin matched and reinforced the retro-America theme,” Hale
explains. “But second, there was an aftermarket value: At the time we
were developing this, everyone was talking about recycling and ecolo-
gy. Why not make something that people don’t want to throw away?
Finally, this would create a unique marketing environment, unlike any-
thing else in the watch section. It gave us extra ammunition at the point
of sale.”
The tin concept has proven so successful that it has even spawned a
wide range of collectors: those people who collect tins, those who col-
lect retro packaging, and those who collect watches. Collectors snap up new designs and actively
buy and sell them through a collector’s club and on the Internet. Rarer models sell for around $15
on e-bay.com.
Fossil’s rectangular tins are so distinctive that consumers naturally associate them with Fossil’s
identity, the same as the Coke bottle shape is associated with the drink. In fact, the U.S. Patent Office
has even recognized Fossil’s signature tin as a registered trademark of the company. No other com-
pany is allowed to package its watches in this type of tin.
Fossil goes to market five times per year and replaces about 10 percent (25 to 30 skus) of its 350 to
400 watch lines with new designs. It replaces tins every quarter, introducing approximately seven-
ty-five to one hundred new ones each year.
“The tin has become our calling card,” Hale says. “I have seen them in antique shops. That’s what’s
exciting to me—that people feel that there is an intrinsic value to them. Especially in America, there
is a real emotional or sentimental tie to the work.”
Hale attributes the brand’s success to several factors. First, the company constantly innovates the
design of the watches and tins. A marketing analyst warned Hale years ago that Fossil would not be
To keep the design of the tins fresh,
Fossil design works hard to explore
and expand the retro theme, not to
imitate it. This chronological pro-
gression shows the development of
the packaging.
1993: DESIGNERS: BRIAN DELANEY, CASEY MCGARR 1994: DESIGNER: AMANDA MCCOY 1995: DESIGNER: TIM HALE
1997: DESIGNERS: ANDREA LEVITAN, JOHN DORCAS
1997: DESIGNER: CARRIE MOLAY 1997: DESIGNERS: BRAD BOLLINGER, MARC FERRINO, STEPHEN BATES, AMANDA BARNES
1997: Designers: Tim Hale, Andrea Levitan, Marc Ferrino
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able to extend the retro theme far or long. But his team of fifty-plus designers works
hard to reinterpret the theme constantly while they simultaneously reinforce the brand
identity. The key is to expand and explore, not imitate.
Second, Fossil understands how the retail environment works: It tries to help retailers.
Hale says that, “Store clerks can take different watches and tins and make our display
case look completely different over and over, just by using the product. The watches go
into the stores separate from the tins, so there is a constant stream of newness com-
ing in.”
To promote the aura of collectibility, all of the tins have serial numbers and dates. In
addition, consumers are allowed to select their own tins. Fossil never circulates any
more than twenty-five thousand of any one tin design at a time.
Finally, Hale has assembled a state-of-the-art design group: Members handle every-
thing from design of the tins and clothing to Web and retail graphics. That keeps peo-
ple energized and excited, he says. As important is designers’ exposure to how Fossil
conducts business. Hale “find[s] that to be a void in some offices—designers go into a
project without understanding the business. Our designers understand the limitations
and goals, so they can design better. They know how business problems get fixed.”
The goal of the car tin, first released in 1992, was to
advance the tin concept and underscore the brand
image by packaging watches in containers that looked
like tin toys from the 1940s. The concept also rein-
forced the idea of using the packaging as a retail mer-
chandising aid to grab the consumer’s attention.
ART DIRECTOR: TIM HALE
1992 MODELS: DESIGNER: TIM HALE
1997 MODELS: DESIGNERS: BRIAN DELANEY, STUART CAMERON,
JAMES WARD, GLEN HADSILL, STEPHEN FITZWATER, CARLOS
PEREZ
202 203
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The oilcan tins, produced in 1994, were based on a sug-
gestion from the managing director of Fossil’s Italian
office. The abundance of oil company graphics from the
1940s and 1950s provided a rich source for graphics and
color inspiration. The stackable aspect of the oilcan made
it a natural merchandising tool in all of Fossil’s channels
of distribution.
ART DIRECTOR/DESIGNER: TIM HALE
The 1997 watch tin was created to hold bracelet-style
models. This tin shape better accommodated the C-cuff
needed to display this new type of watch. The cuff can be
snapped into the lid of the box for retail display.
ART DIRECTOR: TIM HALE
DESIGNERS: TIM HALE, ANDREA LEVITAN, JOHN DORCAS, CASEY
M
CGARR
ILLUSTRATION ON THE ALL-TYPE DESIGN (RIGHT): HATCH SHOW
PRINT
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