Fortis watches

Fortis was founded in Grenchen in 1912 by the watchmaker Walter Vogt, and the company is still based there. Working with the British inventor John Harwood, Fortis began series production in 1926 of what it describes as the first automatic wristwatch.

In the 1990s Fortis became a supplier to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, and in 1994 its Official Cosmonauts Chronograph was worn aboard the Mir space station. After a debt-restructuring moratorium in 2017, the brand was taken over by the private investor Jupp Philipp, who also became chief executive. Current collections include Flieger, Marinemaster, Novonaut, Stratoliner and Vagabond.