Diesel

Diesel was founded in 1978 in Molvena, near Vicenza, from the collaboration between Renzo Rosso and Adriano Goldschmied, who chose an evocative name — that of an "alternative fuel" — for a denim clothing brand conceived from the start as a provocative, rebellious alternative to mainstream casualwear. In 1985 Rosso acquired full control of the company, giving up his stake in the Genius group in exchange for the Diesel shares still held by Goldschmied, and made it the core of what would become the OTB (Only The Brave) group, today also the owner of Maison Margiela, Marni and Viktor & Rolf.

As with many fashion houses, Diesel's entry into watchmaking came through a licensing deal rather than an in-house manufacture. The decisive step came in 1999, when Fossil, Inc. signed an agreement with Diesel for the worldwide production and distribution of Diesel-branded watches, giving rise to the "Diesel Timeframes" line (a name still used in official product listings). The deal was later expanded in 2005 to include jewelry too, and has since been renewed several times: today Fossil Group — the same Texas-based group that also produces Armani Exchange, Michael Kors (for watches) and other fashion brands under license — remains the licensee that designs, produces and distributes Diesel watches worldwide, while the brand's creative direction stays with Diesel/OTB.

The watch catalogue reflects the clothing brand's identity: bold, often oversized cases, layered dials and an industrial-metropolitan aesthetic language that echoes the raw denim and construction-site imagery dear to Diesel fashion. Over the 2010s the line further expanded into smartwatches, with the "Diesel On" sub-line made by Fossil Group on the Android Wear/Wear OS platform, confirming a catalogue that spans from the chronograph to classic quartz to the connected watch.