Fortis Watches
| Fortis-Watches AG
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1912 |
| Seat | Grenchen , Switzerland |
| management | Jupp Philipp, owner and CEO |
| Number of employees | approx. 20 |
| Branch | Watch manufacture |
| Website | www.fortis-swiss.com |
The Fortis Watches AG (formerly Fortis Uhren AG ; proper name FORTIS Watches ), headquartered in Grenchen is a Swiss watch manufacturer .
history
The company was founded in 1912 by Walter Vogt (1883–1957) in Grenchen. Ten years after the founding of the watch manufacturer, a collaboration was established with the English inventor and watchmaker John Harwood . In 1926 Fortis was able to produce the first self-winding wristwatch ( automatic watch ) in series production ( Harwood Automatic ).
The company has been making wristwatches with an alarm function since 1954. “Centinela” (Venus 230) was the first alarm model, followed in 1956 by the “Fortis Manager” (AS 1475) . This model was the first waterproof Fortis wristband alarm clock with a chronometer certificate. Fortis won first prize for this technology in the chronometer competition of the Swiss Institute for Official Time Measurement Technology. Fortis founder Walter Vogt died on September 13, 1957. His two sons took over the business and were henceforth responsible for the company.
In 1962, the Spacematic Automatic space watch was developed and designed in such a way that it worked smoothly under extreme conditions and temperature fluctuations. Previously, a prototype was used in the Americans' Gemini program . The series model Official Cosmonauts Chronograph was first worn by Russian cosmonauts in space. It was shown that watches with automatic drive are also fully suitable in space. In 1969 Fortis launched the world's first plastic wristwatch model called Flipper (initially marketed under the company name Eloga ). In the late 1960s, Fortis was producing up to 1,000,000 watches a year.
In 1987 Fortis presented the first pilot's watches.
Fortis has been the official supplier of the Juri Gagarin cosmonaut training center since 1994 . In 1998 Fortis presented the development of the first automatic chronograph with mechanical alarm, which was subsequently patented. The construction of this clock can be traced back to the Zurich clock engineer Paul Gerber .
In 2017 Fortis ran into financial difficulties. The company applied for a debt restructuring moratorium . Soon afterwards the brand and the production site were taken over by a private entrepreneur. This course was Fortis watches in Fortis Watches renamed.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ History , harwood-watches.com, accessed October 20, 2018
- ↑ Fortis Uhren , trustedwatch.de, accessed on October 20, 2018
- ↑ 3 clocks that were in space, watchtime.net, accessed on October 22, 2018
- ↑ Fortis Tresor: Flipper is Swatch's grandfather. Retrieved March 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Houston: Fortis wants solid ground under his feet . Aargauer Zeitung , March 28, 2015
- ↑ woz / sda: Fortis watch company in Grenchen is at an end . In: Tages-Anzeiger . November 27, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
- ↑ German businessman has bought Fortis watch brand , az Grenchner Tagblatt, July 24, 2018, accessed on October 18, 2018.
- ↑ The traditional Grenchner brand Fortis is to take off under the new leadership , az Grenchner Tagblatt, accessed on October 20. 2018.