A SIXTIES FORTIS WRISTWATCH
Fortis Flipper dive watch / Credit: Zuricberg
As many of us well know, the 1960s were not only a time of quirky watch design and experimentation, but also a time of innovation. Fortis doesn’t usually come to mind when it comes to innovation, it’s usually companies like Seiko and Jaeger-LeCoultre that come up. However, in the late 1960s, Fortis made an interesting play with a new watch model, setting the trend in plastic colourful watches for affordable prices…and it’s unclear if it was ‘experimentation’ or ‘innovation’.
Fortis was very early to the plastic watch arena that Swatch eventually dominated. Before quartz, in 1967, Fortis launched the ‘Flipper’. The Flipper was the first plastic watch, made in Switzerland, with a water resistance of 200 meters, using automatic Swiss movements. Something of a vintage Swatch with a bit more horological significance and a bi-directional rotating dive bezel. But much like Swatch, it was the quartz models that were really best sellers in the 1980s!
The Flipper came in multiple colours in multiple interchangeable straps – early on they were sold with 5 interchangeable bezels at a price of only $20! The Flipper came in olive, orange, purple, blue and navy blue, white, black, red, yellow, and transparent straps – all of which were interchangeable, along with the bi-directional rotating bezel. As they were meant to be sports watches, they had steel casebacks with mineral glass crystals and secure clasps to go with the plastic strap and case.
Old Fortis Flipper ad
The first Fortis Flippers would’ve used automatic Swiss movements (ETA) until quartz was introduced to the line in the mid-1970s. It was thereafter that the quartz models that became the star of the show! They were especially popular in the 1980s, attracting the attention of Danish musician Peter Peter, who went to visit Fortis in Grenchen in 1982 to get himself Flipper Quartz Leader – which he then promoted. Many other more notable figures also wore the Flipper, including Roger Moore and Rolf Vogt, Leonard Bernstein, and many Republicans during the 1984 election as they were made custom for the Republican Party at the time. “Set your watch to Reagan Time” was the slogan used on the watches themselves.
Their numbers, those of the Fortis Flipper, died out in the late ‘80s but made a slight comeback in the 2010s for the brand’s 100th anniversary. Fortis released the Fortis Colours line in 2012 to commemorate their earlier famous watch line, neither of which is too popular today.
So, what does a collector take away from this story? Don’t disregard the old plastic watches at garage sales! You never know when you could pick up a Fortis Flipper or something else like it. A watch with a real story that serves to remind one of Fortis’ versatility. The Flipper may not be well known today but it was once mentioned in the same breadth as stars like Roger Moore and Whitney Houston – its patrons. It’s also a reminder that innovation comes from the strangest places, and that Fortis, a brand you might never point to as ‘innovative’, was once recognized for just that.
By: Andres Ibarguen