Fossil's turnaround failed — it turned to an English court to restructure its U.S. debt

Fossil Group, founded in 1984, spent four decades as the face of affordable fashion watches and became the world's largest watchmaker by volume. Then the smartwatch arrived. Apple and Samsung's wearables pulled the floor out of the mid-range, and a decade of decline bottomed out against a wall of debt: about $300 million in total, split between a $150 million JPMorgan revolving credit and $150 million of unsecured notes due in November 2026.

Sales fell from $1.7 billion in 2022 to $1.1 billion in 2024, while the net loss widened from $44 million to about $106 million. A 2024 turnaround plan and an August 2025 refinancing could not reverse the trend. When the exchange offer to swap the unsecured notes for new secured debt reached only about 84 percent — short of the required threshold — Fossil could not bind the holdout noteholders through a normal U.S. exchange.

Instead of Chapter 11, Fossil created a UK subsidiary to guarantee the notes, moved the indenture's governing law from New York to English law, and filed a Part 26A restructuring plan in the English High Court. On 20 October 2025 it opened a Chapter 15 case in Texas seeking U.S. recognition. The plan meeting passed almost unanimously (363 for, one against), an English court sanctioned it on 10 November, and a U.S. court recognised it two days later — the first known case of a U.S.-listed company restructuring U.S.-law debt through an English plan.