Fossil - Defender Relaunch


Reintroduce authenticity to a new generation

Originally developed in the late ’90s, Fossil’s Defender Collection represented one of the brand’s strongest and most memorable men’s product lines. Rooted in the pioneering days of aviation, the collection was built around a spirit of exploration and resilience—brought to life through five themed sub-collections: Spitfire, Spinnaker, Streamliner, Avion, and Starboard. Each carried its own distinctive story, unified under the Defender insignia and the rallying motto “Never Give Up.”

As the men’s category evolved, Fossil needed to reintroduce the Defender legacy to a new generation—capturing the authenticity and adventure of the original while aligning with modern style sensibilities and modular product trends. The goal was to replace the existing Watchbar program with a fresh, flexible platform that encouraged personalization and everyday versatility.

Our team led the strategy and creative execution for the relaunch—developing the Defender Series as a curated line of convertible cases and bands that could be mixed, matched, and styled for any occasion. The campaign refreshed the original Defender design language, emphasizing craftsmanship, adaptability, and timeless appeal.

Define Strategy and Focus

  • Define your campaign goal: What was the primary goal for this season - awareness, conversion, retention, or new product launch? One goal = one clear message.

  • Define our audience: We segmented by behavior, not just demographics (e.g., loyalists, deal seekers, first-timers).

  • Align with the business moment: Time campaigns around key retail periods—holidays, product drops, or seasonal needs.

Lead with Storytelling
and Purpose

  • Defined a clear narrative that unified the entire project team under one purpose and vision.

  • Rooted the story in the Defender’s heritage—honoring its original “Never Give Up” spirit.

  • Drew inspiration from early aviation design and field-watch details to inform design direction.

  • Ensured every element—from product design to marketing—reflected the same authentic story.

  • Used storytelling as the creative compass to align teams around design, strategy, and execution.

Create a Cohesive,
Omni-Channel Experience

  • Help design a seamless, omni-channel campaign connecting in-store displays, packaging, digital content, and social media.

  • Developed a comprehensive timeline and schedule to ensure all touchpoints launched in sync.

  • Documented all communications materials, aligning execution with campaign goals and stakeholder expectations.

  • Ensured messaging consistency and visual cohesion across all platforms to maximize engagement.

  • Drove integrated storytelling that highlighted product versatility and encouraged consumer interaction.

Customer and Product Experience

  • Concept and POC the online user experience for Defender product customization.

  • Factor in social media integration to support campaign messaging and drive engagement.

  • Collaborated closely with Creative Team, product designers, retail stores, and photography teams to ensure cohesive cross-channel representation.

  • Partnered with Product Owners to understand product lines, opportunities, limitations, product and pricing details.

Execution and Launch

In Store Experience

Make it personal: Fans could design and share their own Defender watch configurations—building their own story of resilience and style. Influencers joined in, crafting their own combinations and sharing how the Defender spirit shows up in their lives.

Online Experience

  • More than a watch—an experience: Customers became creators—mixing, matching, and designing their own Fossil watches with just a few taps. Every combination told a personal story of style.

Connection and Loyalty

  • Empower the creator spirit: Fans could design and share their own Defender watch configurations—building their own story of resilience and style. Influencers joined in, crafting their own combinations and sharing how the Defender spirit shows up in their lives.

  • Fuel connection: Exclusive drops, early access, and collector rewards invited loyal fans deeper into the Defender community.

  • Show real stories: Featuring real people & influencers—builders, doers, explorers—brought authenticity to the campaign and reflected the “those who go first” ethos.

  • Keep the momentum alive: The campaign evolved beyond launch, transforming from a movement of engagement, community and creativity.

Fossil achieved record sales numbers for e-commerce channels for holiday 2014 and 1Q 2015 with e-commerce sales up 23% Y/Y.

Fossil was named a 2014-15 “Digital Genius” by L2, which benchmarks the digital competence of brands.

Design A Watch

After the success of the Defender Build-A-Watch launch, leadership wanted to expand this capability and implement it as a global feature on Fossil.com.

Fossil had a popular in-store feature that allowed customers to build their own custom watch by selecting from an array of watch bands, faces, top rings and cases.

Fossil had a popular in-store experience that allowed customers to build their own custom watch by selecting from an array of bands, faces, top rings, and cases. The team initially believed this level of customization wasn’t possible through digital channels.

By collaborating with product owners, merchandisers, watch designers, and developers, we created a solution that took personalization even further — the new Design A Watch experience allowed customers to customize every detail, from bezel to strap.

The experience transformed customization into connection—empowering customers to tell their story through design and helping bridge the gap between in-store and digital engagement.