Fortis

Walter Vogt founded Fortis in 1912 in Grenchen, Switzerland, opposite the Nordbahnhof station. In 1926, Fortis collaborated with British inventor John Harwood to produce the first serially manufactured automatic wristwatch, unveiled at the Basel Watch Fair. The company introduced its first chronographs in 1937 and launched the Fortissimo line of water-resistant wristwatches in the 1940s. The Spacematic, introduced in the 1960s, became one of the brand's most successful models. In 1994, Fortis achieved a defining milestone when its Official Cosmonauts Chronograph was selected as standard equipment by the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and Roscosmos. The watches have since accompanied Russian space missions aboard Mir and the International Space Station. After financial difficulties in the late 2010s, the brand was acquired by Jupp Philipp, a German businessman, who restructured the company. Under new ownership, Fortis was revitalized with updated collections including the Flieger, Stratoliner, and Novonaut lines. In 2023, Fortis launched the Novonaut with an in-house manufacture caliber, marking a new chapter in the brand's technical capabilities.