Fortis Watch Company, based in Grenchen, Switzerland, was founded in 1912 by William Vogt. In 1926, Fortis met with John Harwood, the Englishman who invented the automatic wristwatch movement, and Fortis became the first factory to serial produce this ground-breaking movement.
When the Peter family purchased Fortis, the decision was made to focus on the historical automatic competence of the brand and the result is that Fortis is a supremely recognizable watch.
“When people see our watches, they know they are from Fortis,” says Lilo Peter, Co-Owner of Fortis. “If they see a Marine Master or a Flieger, people will recognize the family genes. Fortis supplied the military in the Second World War, but the focus on aviation timepieces really started when my husband Peter got involved with the factory.
“Our mission is high quality at reasonable prices,” she continues. “Fortis has a rich history of close to a hundred years. Our aviation and space watches are very functional, but we also have a very artistic side, showcased by our art watches. There are very few serious brands that would allow their watches to be painted in the way we do. We are always open to new ideas.”




B-42 FLIEGER BLACK CHRONOGRAPH ALARM



AUTOMATIC CHRONOGRAPH ALARM


The final frontier – space
The traditional and best known Fortis watches are aviator-style: big, clean, easy to read, utilitarian and made for professionals. In fact, Fortis has been the official watch of the Russian Space Program since 1994 – the programme was looking for an automatic chronograph for the cosmonauts and Fortis submitted a watch, which passed all the tests and Fortis became the official watch of the cosmonauts and has been going up in space ever since. This watch is now part of their collection, called the B-42 Official Cosmonauts (available in several versions, including an Official Cosmonauts set).
Another thing that separates Fortis from the pack is its very complicated automatic alarm chronograph. “Fortis has the one and only automatic alarm chronograph,” according to Ms. Peter. “This was a real spin off from space, as well. Because of our cooperation with the space program — they requested an alarm on our automatic chronograph. It was quite complicated, but we found a solution and integrated the alarm into the Valjoux 7750 chronograph movement. In 1997, we had the first pre-series presented and in 1998, the first watches were produced.”




B42 OFFICIAL COSMONAUTS


Partnerships
In addition to the watches designed for the Russian Space programme, which this year includes a special Mars 500 Mission timepiece, Fortis works with partners when it makes sense. Fortis is working with Volkswagen Design on the Space Leader line of watches, which is an old brand that Fortis has had for decades. According to Peter, Volkswagen Design ap-proached Fortis about working together. In addition, Fortis is featured in the first Swiss science fiction film, called ‘Cargo’, and the pro-ducers asked Fortis to be the time sponsor, which they have done as the film makes the festival rounds. In fact, the film will be shown by Fortis during the upcoming BaselWorld show.
In a departure from the norm for Fortis, the brand is working with artists for its Art Editions by Fortis. So far, Fortis has designed watches with Rolf Sachs (including the uniquely designed ‘IQ’ watch) and Gerd Winner. Fortis also makes special watches for military squadrons. So far, Fortis has made unique watches for the Swiss 11 Fighters, the Hellenic Tigers in Greece, NATO Forces in Hungary, Immelmann 51 in Germany, the Thunder Tiger Aerobatic Team in Taiwan and the Papa Squadron in Hungary




SPACELEADRER


Business
Despite the global downturn, Fortis is “really doing well”, says Ms. Peter. “The mass market is the problem for the industry, but that is not our market. We are distributed in a lot of countries, but we are very niche. Fortis is an independent brand and we have found good distributors all around the world. After Germany, Japan is our second best market. I am looking forward next year to going to Australia, because they will be doing a rocket test in Australia, and there will be an experiment with Fortis watches on that rocket.”

The future
The future looks as bright as a rocket booster for Fortis. Peter vows to continue in the direction the brand has been going. “We will follow our main focus, which is Space and Aviation,” she details. “As we are going to be celebrating 100 years of continuous watch production in Switzerland in 2012, we are starting to look back at what has been done, what happened in the past, how Fortis has looked throughout the different decades. We will select the important things from the past and develop watches for the future.
“In addition, we are working with the European Space Agency on a globally distributed time signal that can be used to set watches automatically,” she continues. “The door is open for the next 100 years. It could be a combination of mechanical and quartz, like the auto quartz. I think this is a good technology for the future.”


Source: Europa Star December-January 2010 Magazine Issue