Fossil Twist: A cautionary tale regarding fashion watches
“C’mon baaaaabaaaay, let’s do the twist!”
- all but stripped the caseback screws
- smashed and broke the movement holder
- over-tightened the rotor screw such that the head broke off and the rotor was banging about the case (why they removed the rotor I have no idea or perhaps they broke it when trying to incorrectly force the parts back together)
- the seconds hand was missing entirely
- the day-of-week setting was no longer working
When he got back in the U.S., he asked if I could look at it and perhaps fix it. I said sure. This ended up leading me on an interesting path and a tale worth telling.
Anyone who knows even little about watches should know that department stores sell all sorts of “fashion watches” at ridiculous prices. They are cheaply made at a very low cost to the manufacturer and then a brand name is slapped on the dials and sold for extortionate prices. Fossil watches are sold through a number of distributors and, from what I was told, this particular watch was purchased at a Macy’s in 2010/2011.
I have owned one Fossil watch in my life, a JR9413 that was purchased for about $50 around 2006 at The Buckle and I recently sold it eBay for $35. It was an ok quartz watch, but did not suit my tastes anymore. The Fossil Twist ME1097 under discussion here is a different beast.
The earliest date I can place the ME1097 is around 2002 (thanks Amazon).
The ME1097 and ME1099 are quite similar it would seem, aside from color. The listings on Amazon have errors, such as the ME1099 item title saying it is a 1097 when it is a 1099, as the watch info suggests. They have different sizes for the band width, neither are correct as it is actually 24mm, and so on.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003RUMR4W/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003V4FW2I
“Our Twist watch has the look of an automatic combined with the accuracy of a quartz movement.”
“The twist movement combines the beauty of an automatic movement with the accuracy of a quartz battery. Partially exposing the inner-workings of the timepiece, the second hand is powered by the motion of your wrist, while the hour and minute hands run off of the replaceable battery.”
From https://www.watchreport.com/the-mystery-of-the-fossil-twist-series/ in 2006 regarding emails sent to promote the Twist:
“Precision quartz timing is merged with a patented mechanical dial to create a watch that will twist your expectations.”
The author of the linked review decided to write to Fossil to get the scoop on their new Twist watches. The next day, they received the following email from Fossil’s trusty “Webguy”:
“As far as the Twist line, it is a quartz driven movement. The automatic part of the watch is just for looks.”
Well…at least “Webguy” didn’t lie. If the marketing statements above make you think of a hybrid mechanical/quartz movement then you have been misled. What Fossil means by “combined” is just that…a mechanical something attached to a quartz movement. Combined, but not connected, a very important difference. The two movements have nothing to do with each other. Fossil took a mechanical mechanism that only powers a “seconds” hand and bolted it to a quartz movement that does not have a seconds hand. The seconds have nothing to do with actual timekeeping or impacting the minute hand on the quartz side of things. It is merely a decoration.
The quartz movement is an S. Epson Corp. VX3NE made in Japan. As far as quartz movements go, it is fine, doing what it does. It is powered by a SR920SW (370/371) battery. As a standalone movement it really does have nice functionality. I picked up a new battery at the pharmacy for $5 and the quartz started ticking away just fine. The “twist” is that this Japanese quartz movement is bolted to a Chinese mechanical decoration.
certainly Chinese machining…Wait…it gets better. See the rotor in the picture above? It says 25 jewels doesn’t it. Someone into watches knows that a fully jeweled basic 3-hand movement has 17 jewels, anything else is overkill. Sure, up the complications and you up the jewels. For example, add a date complication and you likely have around 26 jewels. But here we have a Chinese-made decoration with the sole purpose of simulating seconds and it has 25 jewels? As far as I have dug, it is a complete fabrication. I did not bother disassembling the few pieces comprising this decoration, but externally I only counted 6 jewels. There is no way another 19 are hidden between the plates. And as noted, the quartz movement has no jewels, and thus is not lending a helping hand to the count.
If you’re after an “automatic-quartz twist” they are still available: https://www.macys.com/shop/product/fossil-mens-commuter-twist-brown-leather-strap-watch-42mm?ID=6584227&CategoryID=23930
And if you’re curious about setting the day…it is an absolute pain.
What do you recommend instead of Fossil? I have had a few and like the durability, but hate that if I lose one that’s limited it’s difficult to find a brand new one after a year or so. I had a Hublot from Japan for a while and honestly miss it but the prices are just too much for me right now. I had a Marc Jacobs as a gift but I don’t really like leather straps.
Well quite a difference between something like Fossil and Hublot. The recommendation would be different depending on the look you’re wanting to go for and price range. Much better bracelet options than Fossil though…Seiko, Orient, Hamilton, etc.
I had a Fossil Twist myself in the past. Although I basically agree with this review I would like to make a small comment in favour of Fossil. I used the second hand of my Twist quite often for timing seconds and I noticed that the battery of the watch lasted rather long – I actually never replaced it during the several years that I used the watch. Thing is that in a Quartz watch, the stepper motor of the second hand consumes a lot of energy as it has to make a step 60 times a minute whereas the minute hand usually makes a step 1 to 3 times a minute. This means that the battery of a Quarz watch without second hand lasts much longer than in the presence of a second hand. So using a mechanical movement to drive a second hand does make sense in terms of battery use. At the same time this mechanical movement does not need elaborate fine tuning because when used only on a minute scale the movement is always very accurate. Precise fine tuning is usually the thing that makes a mechanical watch very expensive. In other words: the Twist is a solution to decrease the battery consumption of a Quartz watch in the presense of a second hand, while avoiding the high costs related to the fine tuning of a fully mechanical movement.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment! I agree about the battery saving advantage of the design, and many people will like such a combo. My main concern is the marketing around such pieces, and the ensuing sales or uninformed discussion, where such watches are presented as mechanical watches, when it’s just a decoration. Good thoughts, thanks for sharing.
Do you have any tips please on how to find out what is the quartz movement number? I have an ME1020 myself with a broken rod and was considering to replace it, but wasn’t able to find online what exact quartz movement it’s using. I had the watch opened but didn’t seem to find the actual number written on the movement. Thank you for your help!
The only way to know for sure is to open it up and take a look. I show where to find it if you look at one of the pictures on the post (it’s circled in blue). The quartz movement in this one was a S. Epson Corp. VX3NE (a Seiko).
Hi Brian,
Appreciate you taking the time to write about this. I have the ME1097, and have been running into an issue with the minute hand coming loose. I had it fixed couple of times but each time it happened again. I was able to take it apart, but now I’m wondering how to make the hand secure. Any recommendations? Thank you!
maybe some subtle loctite. or else maybe using pliers to carefully tighten up the post on the hand.
I also have the same watch. Had it fixed twice by Fossil here in Johannesburg South Africa, but still only works for a few days and then the trouble starts. It’s such a beautiful and comfortable watch and I really hope it can be fixed properly by someone , some day.
“over-tightened the rotor screw such that the head broke off and the rotor was banging about the case (why they removed the rotor I have no idea or perhaps they broke it when trying to incorrectly force the parts back together)”
The same thing happened to me. Do you know what size screw I need to replace it?
No idea, sorry. I didn’t measure it when I had it apart, and I don’t have access to the watch anymore.
I have fossil BQ2219 but I don’t know how to remove the dial from the case.
Hey do you know if leather strap can be attached to this watche. One link is kind of attached to the case of the watch between lugs which is not part of the bracelet. Therefore I am not sure if I can add strap to this watch. I was sold this watch as semi mechanical watch and I dropped it once and second hand never worked after that.
If you look at a couple of the pictures in the post that show the back of the watch, you will see that they didn’t really give much space to access the spring bars. You’d have to be careful and have a really thin tool to be able to get the spring bars out without damaging the lugs too much. I don’t have the watch in my possession, so it’s not exactly something I could test out.
Interesting article. Came across this while doing some research. I purchased and still have this exact watch more than 15 years ago. I too was sold on it being mechanical and told by sales staff that the battery component only kicks in if not worn for a long period of time. 2 months in and it stopped working. So I had it warrantied. Maybe 4 years after that the battery stopped working, went to a local watch shop and the owner opened it up, took a look, called it back up and handed it right back. He has no idea how to replace it and suggested I go to fossil for the repair. Fossil had me send the watch on for battery replacement, which cost around $10-$20. After receiving it, the battery lasted all of 6 months before drying again. It’s since been catching dust in the corner of a drawer. I did like the style so much that I ended up purchasing an actual chronograph from Citizen and haven’t had a single issue since.
An interesting addition to the story! Thanks for sharing. And yeah I can’t imagine a battery lasting long in this watch. Regardless, it’s Fossil, so it overpriced cheap stuff.