MENU

Fortis Aquatis B-42 Marinemaster

Fortis Aquatis B-42 Marinemaster

Fortis, a Swiss watchbrand founded by Walter Vogt in Grenchen in 1912.  The brand is known as being innovative and creative, being responsible for the first automatic wristwatch in the name of Harwood, and having 4 great lines now representing sport, dress, aviation, maritime and space.  The lines are called Aquatis, Cosmonautis, Aviatis and Terrestris. The Marinemaster is part of the Aquatis line.

Personally, the Marinemaster is one of my favorite designs of all current Fortis timepieces.  There are a lot of variations from diver to diver chronograph, with many different color variations from orange to yellow, black to blue and more.

The new young team heading Fortis now is ambitious, very openminded and creative to bring Fortis to more than just its old glory.

I especially like their new slogan for the Marinemaster divers on their homepage:

In a way this is a creative allegory from “You drive me crazy”….

Several months ago, I spent a whole day at Fortis, meeting with Max, their new CEO and with Andreas who is responsible for PR and Marketing.  They have been doing well introducing Fortis watches to new circles of clients and distributors and are working to match their production capacitiy to be able to deliver.

Anyhow, let me share the pictures I took of their Marinemasters.  They had a lot of models to show, but possibly not all of them.

IMG_9349This is the Diver.  Love it in yellow, but it can be had in other colors as well including blue bezel and indices, and white and black dials.

The movement is an ETA 2836-2, a movement tested and tried for ages, with automatic winding.

While the case is 42mm in size for both diver and chronograph, the bezell adds about 1mm on either side making this watch more like a 44mm watch.  A very contemporary size still, and a very comfortable wearer I can assure you as you will see on some wristshots.  And I am usually the guy wearing 40mm watches.

For more information and pictures view the Fortis homepage displaying the Marinemaster models.

I had the opportunity to shoot pictures of mainly chronographs to share with you.

IMG_9322The chronographs carry Valjoux 7750 movements, a movement known as the “tractor”, highly reliable and dependent.

IMG_9328So the movement is not only a “tractor” but very comfortable as you do not need to wind it, it is an automatic movement.  For most people this brings comfort, and mostly true collectors prefer handwound movements, at least from my experience.

IMG_9338There are a ton of choices regarding straps in different colors.  For more details you are best off to view the homepage.  I have pictures of strap choices on my cellphone, another time I will extract them and add them in a blogpost.  Anyhow, below you can enjoy some strap choices, rubber straps in different colors, but there are also other materials and last but not least a steet bracelet.

IMG_9343A classy looking diver with a white rubber strap.  The only color accent is the orange hand, something many collectors and watchenthusiasts love.  The famous orange hand is often associated with the Rolex Explorer 2 reference 1655 which has a large orange hand to show the seconds.

IMG_9353I think the diver as well as the chronograph is such a great choice.  These watches are rugged, they are extremely pleasing to the eye as well as to the wrist.

IMG_9356While I would not like to see the day and date indication on most watches, on the Marinemaster it is absolutely an enrichment, it does not disturb the dial optics.

Honest recommendation from a watchlover like me, if you want a solid watch with a mechanical movement, from a great Swiss watchmanufature, with decades of history in space flight and Russian cosmonauts have clocked many miles on Fortis timepieces. the divers have also undergone serious testing.

According to Fortis, the SQ 751 pilots of the Portuguese Maritime Search and Rescue Team put the FORTIS Marinemaster through intensive test phases. These diving tests assess, amongst others: readability, pulse rate, pressure tightness under excess air pressure, functionality under water pressure, salt water resistance. 

While I would assume that most of us would wear the watch for its looks, it is good to know that it can be used for a serious purpose and that it is not just a marketing diver which has never been put to use.

IMG_9326

 

 

 

 

Spread the love