This traditional Swiss watch brand was founded in the town of Grenchen by Walter Vogt.  It was founded in 1912, but it soon made an impact for the high quality of its designs. Its first automatic watch, named Harwood, was launched in 1924, and was created by the merger of Vogt with John Harwod, which ensured the success of the piece.  The Autorist model was born in 1931, also with an automatic mechanism.

To celebrate its 25th anniversary Fortis began to manufacture their own watches, becoming a highly prestigious brand for their great skills; that is how it introduced its first waterproof wristwatch with alarm, called Fortissimo, in 1954. Two years later this model made Fortis win the watch contest presented by the Swiss Institute of Chronometry.

For their 50th anniversary, the company launched the Stratonliner Jubilee model in 1962, and in 1965 produced a watch with plastic and a high water resistance, which they named Flipper.  It was followed by the Flipper Quartz Leader, which was part of an original system called Fortis Container, allowing for the machine and the bracelet to be exchanged in seconds.  These works of art were seen on the wrist of big celebrities, such as the Rolling Stones, Leonard Bernstein and Roman Polansky.

Continuing with the momentum of the new collections, Fortis presented in 1987 a collection named Flieger, which soon became known in the automatic wristwatch industry around the world.  In 1988 the company won awards at the World Industries Fair, held in Hannover, for their Container watches and their Fever collection.

Fortis had the honor of traveling aboard a Russian rocket through its special watch edition called Space Art Edition, released in 1992.  They also presented that year the first watch with calendar display, the Hedonist.

The year 1997 was a major achievement for Fortis as their incredible Official Cosmonauts Chronograph timepiece was chosen as the official watch of the German Russian space mission MIR 97. In 1988 Fortis becomes the first watch manufacturer to introduce a mechanical alarm watch.

Space Matic was the name of the new Fortis watch collection, shown in 2000, with a space style.  It received a double price from the Star of the Blue Planet awards, awarded by the Russian space agency at the time, and also an award from Begin magazine.

This renowned firm impressed many luxury watch lovers with their distinctive styles, such as their new B-12 Cosmonauts Chronographt model, with a design somewhat curious because of its unusual size at the time. This piece was released in 2003.

With a good selection of materials, and offering the highest quality and unique finishes, Fortis continues to produce watches that aim to please a demanding consumer, but also fans of aeronautics.

Interestingly, in 2012, the firm offers a limited edition watch, called B-47 World Timer GMT, featuring a Swiss automatic movement, 21 jewels, bi-directional bezel, AR sapphire crystal on both sides, water resistance to 200 meters, and a deployable blue strap, among other things that make it a great work of art.