Description
SKAGEN vintage quartz watch
DANISH DESIGN
Skagen takes its name from Denmark’s northernmost fishing village, perched at the very tip of the Jutland peninsula — the place where the North Sea and the Baltic meet. The brand’s double-chevron logo evokes that meeting point: two seas, two currents, converging at one narrow spit of sand.
The company behind the name was founded in 1989 by Henrik and Charlotte Jorst, a Danish couple who had moved to New York three years earlier. What started as a side project — clean, Danish-designed watches debuted at a New York gift fair in 1991 — grew quickly into Skagen Denmark, a brand built on a simple promise: genuine Scandinavian minimalism, ultra-slim profiles, and honest materials at a price ordinary people could afford.
Through the 1990s and 2000s, Skagen became one of the most recognizable faces of Danish design on the wrist — proof that “designed in Denmark” could mean restraint, lightness, and clarity rather than luxury pricing.
About the Steel Collection Line
🕰️ The Steel Collection is Skagen at its most confident: the same Danish restraint the brand built its name on, scaled up to a full 40 mm and rendered entirely in stainless steel.
Where the early Skagen models chased absolute lightness in titanium, the Steel Collection chased presence. The case is wide and flat, the bezel polished to a thin bright ring, and the dial left almost empty — a vertically brushed silver field, outlined Arabic numerals, a single word (STEEL) and a discreet date at six. Nothing else. It is the Danish functionalist idea applied literally: every element that does not help you read the time was removed.
The bracelet is the other half of the design. Milanese mesh — woven steel rather than linked — has been Skagen’s signature since the 1990s, and here it runs a generous 23 mm at the case, tapering to 20 mm, closed by a signed fold-over clasp that slides anywhere along the weave. It drapes like fabric and sits flat under a cuff.
Inside is the same pragmatic choice the founders made across the whole range: a dependable Japanese quartz caliber that keeps excellent time and asks for nothing but a battery every few years. Pieces from the pre-Fossil era — when the case-backs still read “Skagen Designs, Ltd” — are the ones collectors of minimalist design increasingly seek out as the “real” Skagen: the version the founding couple themselves shipped.
About This Watch
This is the Skagen ref. 355XLSS — the extra-large, all-steel, mesh-bracelet member of the Steel Collection, and the largest Skagen the store has offered so far at a full 40 mm across.
The dial is the reason to own it. A vertically brushed silver plate catches the light in a narrow band that travels as you move your wrist, and the numerals sit on it as thin outlined figures rather than solid blocks — present enough to read instantly, quiet enough that the dial still looks empty. The applied polished markers at 12, 3, 6 and 9 positions, the small STEEL designation under the centre, and the date window at six are the only interruptions. The double-chevron Skagen logo sits below twelve above DENMARK.
The case is all stainless steel, brushed on the flanks and top, with a thin polished bezel and a gently domed super-hardened mineral crystal. The snap-on case-back carries the full pre-Fossil legend — SKAGEN DESIGNS, LTD · ALL STAINLESS STEEL · SUPER HARDENED MINERAL CRYSTAL · WATER RESISTANT 3ATM · SLIM · JAPAN QUARTZ MOV’T — and the reference 355XLSS beneath the logo.
Opened, the watch shows a Miyota 1M12 Japanese quartz caliber, stamped JAPAN · NO JEWELS · MIYOTA CO · 1M12, running on a 364 (SR621SW) cell. It is a three-hand movement with the date, rated by Miyota at about ±20 seconds a month — slim, unfussy and still readily serviceable.
The bracelet is the original Skagen Milanese mesh, roughly 23 mm where it meets the case and tapering to 20 mm, with a fold-over safety clasp engraved SKAGEN on its cover. Because the clasp slides along the weave rather than sitting at fixed links, the fit is adjustable across a wide range of wrists.
Technical Specifications
- Brand: Skagen (Denmark)
- Line: Steel Collection (“XL” slim steel mesh)
- Reference Number: 355XLSS
- Era: 2000s — pre-Fossil “Skagen Designs, Ltd” production
- Movement: Miyota 1M12 Japanese quartz, no jewels, three hands with date, 364 (SR621SW) battery
- Case Material: All stainless steel, brushed with a polished bezel
- Case Diameter: Approx. 40 mm (excluding crown)
- Dial: Vertically brushed silver with outlined Arabic numerals, “STEEL” designation and a date window at 6 o’clock
- Crystal: Super-hardened mineral, gently domed
- Case-back: Snap-on steel, engraved “SKAGEN DESIGNS, LTD · ALL STAINLESS STEEL · SUPER HARDENED MINERAL CRYSTAL · WATER RESISTANT 3ATM · SLIM · JAPAN QUARTZ MOV’T · 355XLSS”
- Water Resistance: 3 ATM (30 m) when new — treat as splash-resistant only today
- Bracelet/Strap: Original Skagen stainless-steel Milanese mesh, approx. 23 mm at the case tapering to 20 mm, signed fold-over safety clasp
Condition Report
The watch is in very good pre-owned condition and has just been through the workshop.
The dial is clean and bright, with no spotting, staining or lifted printing — the brushed finish is intact and the numerals are crisp. The hands are straight and unmarked, and the date disc is clear and correctly aligned in its window.
The steel case shows light hairlines from ordinary wear, most visible on the polished bezel and around the case-back edge where it has been opened for service; there are no dents, no deep scratches and no plating issues to worry about — the watch is solid steel throughout. The mineral crystal is clear, with no chips or cracks.
The mesh bracelet is supple and unstretched, with no kinks or flattened sections in the weave, and the signed clasp closes and holds firmly. The crown pulls and returns cleanly, and the date advances correctly.
This watch has recently been serviced by a professional watchmaker and keeps good time.
Comes complete with original steel bracelet*.
(*)Note: Stock bracelets are often shortened by previous owners and may not fit you(see bracelet size in the product images). We recommend adding a new lug width matched leather strap with your order.
This watch ships from 🇺🇦 Ukraine with tracking number
Why Collectors Want This Watch Today
Skagen is not a rare watch and this listing will not pretend otherwise — the brand sold in serious numbers through the 2000s, and that is exactly why a good one is worth having: you get a genuinely well-resolved piece of Danish design for the price of a dinner out.
What makes this particular example worth a second look is the size and the material. Most surviving Skagens are the slim 33–36 mm dress models; the XL steel version at 40 mm wears like a modern watch and suits a wrist that a smaller Skagen would look lost on. Being all stainless steel rather than plated, it has aged without the bald patches that dog cheaper watches of the same decade.
It is also a pre-Fossil piece — the case-back still reads “Skagen Designs, Ltd”, from the years when Henrik and Charlotte Jorst still ran the company themselves. Collectors of minimalist design have quietly settled on those as the ones to buy.
Practically: a 40 mm brushed-silver dial you can read at a glance, a mesh bracelet that adjusts to almost any wrist and disappears under a cuff, quartz accuracy that needs nothing but a battery, and a movement that is still available and cheap to service. It is the watch you reach for when you do not want to think about your watch.
Modes of payment:
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We guarantee the item you receive looks and works exactly as advertised — or your money back.
Lug width matched leather straps: 18mm - 19mm - 20mm
About the watch factory
Skagen Designs, Ltd. was founded in 1989 by Henrik and Charlotte Jorst, Danish expatriates living in New York, and grew through the 1990s into one of the world’s best-known Danish design brands. The watches were designed around the principles of Danish functionalism — slim profiles, clean typography, muted colors, and an absolute refusal of ornament for ornament’s sake.
Rather than building factories, Skagen did what most design-led watch brands of its era did: it paired Danish design direction with established manufacturing partners in Asia and dependable Japanese quartz movements, keeping the watches accessible without compromising on materials — titanium, steel mesh, and mineral crystals were standard even at modest prices.
In 2012 the founders sold Skagen Designs to the Fossil Group for approximately US$237 million. The brand continues today under Fossil ownership, but collectors of Danish design tend to seek out the earlier, pre-2012 “Skagen Designs, Ltd” pieces — the watches made while the founding couple still ran the company — as the definitive expression of the brand.
