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.
The international awarded
painter and sculptor Gerd Winner has created an individually numbered and a
limited wristwatch collection, the WINNER EDITION. |