Gevril Group

The History of Fortis is Really the History of Modern Watchmaking

When watchmaker Walter Vogt began commercial watch production in 1912 under the name Vogt & Git in the Swiss village of Grenchen, his motto was “difficulties are there to be overcome.” At the time, competition was intense among Swiss watchmakers and Vogt was convinced that the secret to success was to be found through innovation. From the very beginning, he was determined to manufacture top quality, innovative designs at an affordable price.

Walter Vogt knew that to succeed he needed a powerful name and an innovative product to sell. In 1914, he found the name he wanted and Vogt & Git became Fortis Watch. Ten years later Vogt met English watchmaker and inventor John Harwood. With the help of Harwood, Vogt found the innovative idea his company needed. Harwood had just invented the automatic wristwatch and Fortis became the first company in the world to produce it. In 1926, the revolutionary Harwood Automatic was introduced at the Basel Fair and Fortis Watch began to develop its reputation as a technical leader.

During the 1930’s the company continued enhancing the automatic watch concept by marketing new innovations like the legendary Rolls, which was developed by watchmaking pioneer Leon Hatot of Paris. The Rolls got its name from a clever movement that was wound by the motion of an arm that rolled inside the case, guided by balls between two runners. Inventor John Harwood also developed the “Autorist” during this period, which was powered by movements of the watch strap.

Although not all of these innovations were a commercial success, they did establish Fortis as a world-class technical innovator.

As watches became smaller and more complex, Fortis continued to lead the way with new and innovative ideas. Fortis brought the first waterproof Swiss watches to the world with their popular Fortissimo models. They began manufacturing their first chronographs in 1937 and 60 years later, patented the world’s first automatic chronograph alarm watch. This beautifully complex mechanical alarm watch is highly prized by collectors today.

As the reputation of Fortis continued to grow, Fortis watches became popular with pilots and aviators. It is not surprising that some of the original Mercury astronauts chose to wear the Fortis “Spacematic,” a precise chronograph that was water resistant to 25 atmospheres.

The company’s reputation for producing space watches was enhanced even further when the Fortis Cosmonaut Chronograph was chosen to be the official watch of the Russian-German space mission MIR 97 in 1997.

Today all cosmonauts and astronauts leaving the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia receive a Fortis watch as part of their official space equipment. Fortis still has the distinction of being the first watch worn in open space after a Fortis watch was worn on an early Russian spacewalk.

Almost 100 years after it was founded, Fortis continues to set the pace for other watch companies to follow. After a century of watchmaking innovation, the company is still located in Grenchen, Switzerland and remains committed to finding new meanings for the “strength” found in its famous name.

Gevril Group US and Canadian Agent for Fortis Watches

Gevril Group is the sole US and Canadian agent for Fortis Watches. Celebrate with us March 8-12, 2012 the 100th Anniversary of Fortis Swiss Watches at the Dorint Hotel, which is located just around the corner from the Baselworld 2012 exhibition site. Contact Miriam Tress, Fortis Brand Manager, by email or at 845-425-9882.

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