From cnmark posting...Quote from hr: WATCHES magazine...
1994: FORTIS becomes a part of the “official equipment handed over to the cosmonauts before launch” after exhausting tests and studies with the help of Yuri Gagarin and the Russian State Scientific-Research Test Center for Cosmonauts Training in Star City. It is the FORTIS OFFICIAL COSMONAUTS CHRONOGRAPH that is the “Chosen watch.” The Fortis web site notes that, “The space mission EUROMIR I crew was the first to which the FORTIS Official Cosmonauts Chronograph Sets were presented. During the Soyus TM19 mission which took place to prepare the docking manoeuvre STS 71 between the American Spaceshuttle Atlantis and MIR station, the FORTIS automatic chronographs improved their reliability during several extra vehicular activities in open space.”
FYI.... Yuri Gagarin was DEAD long before Fortis ever approached the Russian's...this magazine article was not researched very well. The statement is FALSE HYPE. Gagarin mysteriously died in a plane crash in March, 1968, a time when the Soviets would rather wear nothing but a watch made in the Motherland and would not be associated with anything made in the West.
Γεγονοτα και ακολουθει η αποψη του φορουμιστα.Κατι που αλλου ειναι αυτονοητο ισως.
I think the Fortis is very cool watch, and the the Russian's apparently do too. It was a smart move on the part of Fortis to approach the folks in Moscow to propose an "Official" watch for the cosmonauts. Even though we all have seen the cosmonauts wearing Speedmaster's during earlier years (like during Apollo/Soyuz and other missions), these years pre-dated any possibility of linking a "brand" to official equipment in the USSR. Such a concept would never be considered by Kruschev, Breshnev or any of their comrades in those days. Since the break-up of the USSR, things have opened up considerably, and so Fortis has taken advantage of the new open door policy. Good for them! Has anyone ever seen the cosmonauts wearing an Omega X-33 in more recent years? Since the Russian's used the same specs for watches as NASA from the mid 70's, one would think they'd continue doing so. And on that note, has anyone ever seen a NASA astronaut wearing a Fortis during flight during recent years?
I've send many mail to Fortis to have some more info about their story of Fortis in space but they do not reply to me.
It will be interesting to have more info if somebody can find more information
WUS
