Fortis is a watchmaker with a history that began back in 1912. Its facilities, nestled in Grenchen, was built on Bauhaus criteria. Founder of the company, Walter Vogt began focussing on growing and expanding the brand and its manufacturing house to keep up with the demands of the industry, which at the time, were booming. When Vogt formed ideas with John Harwood, a British watchmaker, the first wristwatch was born. The Harwood. Its conception came at a time when Harwood was researching ways to improve dust and moisture protection that often impacted upon the performance of a watch’s winding system. To overcome these problems he developed an internal winding system as well as a sealed case. These elements worked together to reduce, if not completely irradicate the problem, forming the basic building blocks of many successful Fortis watches to come.
The very first Fortis chronograph watch was the Fortissimo, which housed an automatic movement inside a waterproof case. It launched in 1943 but the brand soon began venturing into military watches. One of the unique factors of Fortis watches during this era and the 1950s was that all of the brand’s watches were developed and assembled in-house at the company’s Grenchen-based manufacturing facilities. Other important models developed during this time were the Spacematic Automatic watch worn by seven astronauts working for the US space programme and the Marinemaster, utilised particularly for its legible dial. One invention that put Fortis on the map for its innovative and forward-thinking skills was a timepiece developed in 1956 that combined a water resistant watch with a mechanical alarm feature.
Over the next decade, Fortis dedicated its expertise towards mastering watches that were affordable, reliable but also able to withstand extreme temperature fluctuations and weather changes, making them popular choices for professionals within the aerodynamics industry. The company took a change in direction during the 1970s and 1980s with a vivid range of fashion watches that embraced the quartz movement with a range of brightly coloured plastic cases. The Fortis Flipper collection became an instant hit, mainly for its versatility, with a range of interchangeable bezels available, making each watch easy to transform on the wrist. The Rolling Stones, American President, Ronald Regan and Leonard Bernstein were all spotted styling the Fortis Flipper on their wrist.
In 1990, Fortis developed the Cosmonaut Chronograph which became part of the official equipment used by Russia’s Star City Training Centre. It accompanied the centre on its 1994 debut mission to space. The last 20 years of Fortis’ heritage have been highlighted by the brand’s shock absorbent technology. The case of the B-42 watch housed Incabloc shock absorbers for a smoother mechanical performance.
Having been used as part of a real time Russian simulation of a flight to Mars and sported on the wrists of inspirational artists such as Michael Mattern, Andora, Rolf Sachs and Frank Burmann, it is clear that the next 100 years for Fortis will be equally as ground breaking at exciting. Our collection of Fortis watches here at C W Sellors includes popular collections like the Aeromaster, the Aquatis, the Flieger and the Marinemaster, not to mention the Pilot Classic Collection, the Cosmonautis and the Classic Cosmonauts series.
