Fossil Townsman Chronograph Quartz FS5396 Men’s Watch a very articulately constructed watch with all kinds of refinement possible for a simple chronographic watch with an analogue dial. However, dial falls under the dial category with 44mm in diameter and 12mm in thickness. The water-resistant being a mere 50 meter is certainly not for the hardcore swimmers, a mere snorkelling is fine.
The fine leather strap one can talk about and the solid stainless steel makes. The design process is deceptively simple, though very complex in execution. The basic idea is that Fossil designers look at runway collections and other activities of the brands they work with, then look at tried and true watch design principles and finally seek to create an affordable yet satisfying product. That is, meant to be both a decent watch and a decent fashion item – all for a price that isn’t luxury but isn’t bargain basement.
The Fossil Townsman Chronograph Quartz FS5396 Men’s Watch is an affordable watch, like other fossil watches, but it is evident that this American brand does not compromise on quality. The watch will be chosen over other automatic watches is definitely because of the price and the precise accuracy that an automatic watch produces. The dial itself uses Roman numeral as it is opposed to Arabic numeral. I always like Roman numeral in dress watch because it adds more classical feeling to the watch and because it is easy to be seen. The Roman dial itself is not present in every number: only the number 12, 3, 6, and 9 has its own number. This is also not a problem, because if it is forced to use all Arabic number in the dial, the dial will become “crowded” and reducing its classical look. In every number, there is a crystal which acts to illuminate if there is considerable darkness near the watch. The crystals do the job well for a dress watch because it illuminates brightly and easy to be read. In the dial, besides the first hand which tells the hour and minutes, there is the second dial, which tells the second and sweeps rather than ticking, and there is the third dial which tells the time in 24-hour format. The second dial and third dial are located near the automatic machine in the bottom left, this creates the impression of “floating.”
The movement in Fossil Townsman Chronograph Quartz FS5396 Men’s Watch uses Fossil automatic movement which is known for its reliability. Despite the movement is an automatic mechanic, which means that you only to wear it to keep it working, you could also use the manual hand winding—a rare feature in the advent of automatic mechanic watches. To use the manual hand winding, you have to rotate it in an anti-clockwise direction for about 18 times, and then the power that is generated from the hand winding will become power reserve, although for only short time. The hand winding mechanism is only useful if you want to sleep and you don’t want the Fossil Townsman to lose the track of time. It isn’t designed for up to 40-hour power reserve like from the high-end watches. If you are the type of person who won't wear this every day and still want to make it tracks the time, you could buy a winding machine that could be found on the internet.
Overall, it can be said that Fossil Townsman Chronograph Quartz FS5396 Men’s Watch is an affordable watch with a classy look to flaunt.
Bottom line: A dress Fossil Watch with a minimalistic look that does not tell loud about fashion, brand or the watch complexity. A simple design and nothing to think about just to watch it to see the time with accurate hours, seconds and minutes... No complicated moves or technologies. Apure and simple wristwatch.