Fortis
- A Brief History
1912
The swiss village of Grenchen was the home of FORTIS when the company was founded
by Walter Vogt in 1912, and it still is today. Mr. Vogt was a great innovator
and pioneer: his original philosophy still forms the basis of today's company's
policy. " ..the manufacture of good quality Swiss watches, in innovative
designs at affordable prices.."
1924
The most decisive year in the history of FORTIS was in 1924, when Walter Vogt
met John Harwood, the British inventor of the automatic wristwatch. Harwood
had already been looking for two years to find an industrial partner to
massproduce his invention in Switzerland. In the founder of FORTIS, he
discovered an enlighted defender of "the automatic wristwatch" concept.
Walter Vogt backed the project and provided considerable financial resources
to putting this invention into production.
1926
The world's first selfwinding wristwatch in series production the "Harwood
Automatic" was presented at the Basle fair and attracted intense interest.
1930
In the 1930's, FORTIS produced two more classic automatic watches which became
famous products: First came the "Rolls", a wristwatch, which
was to become legendary with a winding system developed by Leon Hatot of
Paris. The watches name was derived from the motion of the movement inside
the case to wind the movement.
1931
FORTIS produced the Autorist, which used another automatic mechanism invented
by John Harwood. The watch was powered by movements of the strap by means
of its attachement to the watch.
1937
On the occassion of the company's 25th anniversary FORTIS manufactured their
first chronographs which are admired for their precision until today. "Wandfluh",
the name of the Jura massive close to Grenchen as name of the FORTIS Chrono
became known throughout the world.
1943
The latin wordmeaning of FORTIS is "strong" and with the presentation
of the first waterproof watches from Switzerland FORTIS again perfectly meets
the market demands with their most successful model "Fortissimo".
1947
Some decades later to its first appearance on the market the alarm wrist watch
enjoys renewed popularity thanks to the efforts of FORTIS.
1954
FORTIS takes up the manufacturing of the alarm watch, thus becoming closely
associated with the world-wide distribution of the most serviceable timepiece
ever marketed.
1956
FORTIS wins the leading chronometer awards conferred by the Swiss Insitute
for Official Watch Timekeeping Tests, awarded to their waterproof alarm
watches of the "Manager"-series. Every single "FORTIS-Manager" alarm
watch tested, obtained the supreme distinction "especially good results".
1957
In Tokyo 600 watchmakers celebrated the so-called "FORTIS day" in
Yamaha hall on the 26 th of November. The company invited the Japanese watchmakers
to promote the new electrical regulation system "BEP" presented by
FORTIS and as thus the good relationship with the members of the Japanese watchmakers
society.
1962
The name of FORTIS- synonymous worldwide for reliable automatic watches from
Switzerland- continues with their jubilee watch on the occasion of the
company's 50th anniversary "Stratoliner" and the "Spacematic",
a 25 atmospheres tested absolutely wateresistant anchour watch, high precision
automatic, with date indication and chosen by the members of the American
astronauts team that year.
1965
With the upcoming quartz watches from Japan FORTIS like all the other Swiss
brands had to face a competition on the market, which a lot of them could
not stand. The FORTIS answer on this challenge, based on the companies
experiences in waterresistant diver watches was the development of the "Flipper" watch.
For the American market: the "FORTIS-Cobra", a most striking
design which was a real hit and enormous success in those swinging times.
1975
FORTIS set the pace in watch fashion with the "Flipper quartz leader" model,
a great success in more than 40 countries the following years. This watch range
incorporated the original FORTIS Container System, allowing the movement and
bracelet to be interchanged within seconds.
1982
The "Flipper quartz leader" provides besides steel and 18 ct. gold
bracelets a wide range of colourful straps and thus made this FORTIS design
a hit in the early 80s, worn for example by The Rolling Stones, Roman Polanski,
Leonard Bernstein, etc.. The "...aristocrat of the plastic watches"..V.
Philibert, Europa Star.
1987
On the occassion of the company's 75th anniversary FORTIS sets a trend by relaunching
the automatic wristwatches which had been synonymous for the brand in the
glory past. Besides the Original FORTIS Container System with the successful
range of the "FORTIS Logo Swiss" collection and the Harwood being
the world's first automatic wristwatch in series production, FORTIS relaunched
the legendary pilot's watches with their clear functions and easy to read
dials in the typical FORTIS design that year and marks the renaissance
of mechanical watches, a trend which a lot of Swiss watch companies followed
until today.
1992
FORTIS steps into space on board of the first advertising and art painted space
craft, a Russian proton rocket. One dial of a limited series of the FORTIS
Stratoliner automatic chronograph participates in the first "space
museum" in orbit.
Since then a close cooperation
between FORTIS and several Russian space institutions lead to the development
of the FORTIS OFFICIAL COSMONAUTS CHRONOGRAPH, which was tested on the border
of modern physics and under spaceflight simulation and proved its reliability
on the wrist of the russian cosmonauts even in open space.
1994
After two years of testing and preparation the Yuri Gagarin Russian State Scientific-Research
Test Center of Cosmonauts Training in Star City chose the FORTIS OFFICIAL
COSMONAUTS CHRONOGRAPH to be part of their cosmonauts official equipment.
Developed in intensive
cooperation with the experienced experts of the center the FORTIS automatic
chronograph received its unique design which meats the cosmonauts needs in
every detail of its function.
The space mission EUROMIR
I crew was the first to which the FORTIS Official Cosmonauts Chronograph
Sets were presented to in October. Since then the FORTIS Sets were presented
to all Russian cosmonauts of the Gagarin Center and the FORTIS Chronographs
proved their reliability on the wrists of astronauts and cosmonauts in their
professional activity and during several extra vehicular activities in open
space.
1995
Deeply involved in the world of aviation the FORTIS Chronographs were the timekeeping
instruments of the world height record on a MIG 25PU double seater -non
experimental- aircraft with a civil passenger, honoured by the guiness
book of records.
1996
After a successful launch of the FORTIS Cosmonauts and Pilot's collection in
Europe FORTIS started its market approach with a spectacular debut in Asia.
1997
The FORTIS OFFICIAL COSMONAUTS CHRONOGRAPH was chosen to be the official watch
of the Russian-German space mission MIR 97.
On the occassion of the
company's 85th anniversary the world's first automatic chronograph with mechanical
alarm was presented at the Basle fair. In close cooperation and as per the
demands of the cosmonauts developed, FORTIS exposed this mechanical speciality
in a limited anniversary edition of 100 pieces in platinum, to be followed
by a steel version later.
1998
The Hungarian Air Force uses the FORTIS Pilot Professional Chronograph Automatic
to equip their pilots. The 47th tactical fighter regiment fly with FORTIS.
The Russian cosmonaut
Vladimir Dezhurov is a nominated crew member to fly to the international
space station ISS, which is going to be launched this summer. He joins the
presentation of the FORTIS OFFICIAL COSMONAUTS CHRONOGRAPH AUTOMATIC ALARM
in Portugal and Spain. In the Planetarium of Lisboa he answered all questions
of the press concerning the manned space program and his experience with
the FORTIS Automatic chronograph during his work outside the MIR station
in open space.
The premiere of the FORTIS
world novelty in Spain took place in Barcelona on the occasion of the 10
th anniversary celebrations of "THE WATCH GALERY".
The ISS cosmonaut raises
great interest and answers the questions of the audience concerning the FORTIS
chronograph which he tested as part of his official equipment supplied by
the Yuri A. Gagarin Cosmonauts training centre.
The FORTIS ART EDITION
is presented on the occasion of the Basle fair.
