FORTIS Friday ... Official Cosmonauts Chronographs Since 1994, Russian cosmonauts have worn the FORTIS Automatic chronograph dubbed “Official Cosmonauts Chronograph Automatic” on the dial of this Swiss chronograph toolwatch made in Grenchen - Switserland. During the first mission, TM-19, the FORTIS chronographs were used during two spacewalks totalling 11 hours 5 minutes, working flawlessly being exposed to the harsh outer space environment. Taking a closer look at FORTIS reveals that the chronographs appeared in official Soyuz crew photos since 1994 with the NASA STS-71 astronauts/cosmonauts crew portrait for the first docking between the space shuttle and the Russian space station Mir. Thus far FORTIS chronographs have been worn in space by spacefarers of 4 different nations during at least 25 missions! The most recent crew photo showing a FORTIS chronograph was 2021 Soyuz MS-19 at the wrist of Anton Shkpalerov. (Photo: MoonwatchUniverse)
