I've never really looked into Fortis as a company before. I held one of their Flieger watches years ago when I went to buy my Longines Legend Diver back in 2007 and I really liked it and I've always had them at the back of my mind.
I narrowly missed out on a PVD Flieger GMT a while ago, it was quite beaten up but looked great. They don't come up that often so I was delighted to pick this one up from Chrono24 the other week from a private seller - she said it was in great condition.. well it looks unworn.
I love the shape of the case - all dial, 40mm, flat glass, matte dial, very thin. The tiny lugs are cool too. It's a very legible thing; the lume is really creamy coloured and the GMT + Second hand are ridiculously luminous during the day. I think they might be radioactive!! The colours are really hard to capture in a photo, the lume looks much more white below than it does on the watch (I think it used to be white but it's aged)
Anyway when I was looking at their website I read up about the history of the company, and I had no idea about their rich history. They strike me as a noble and quiet company who have more brand heritage than most. It said something along the lines of the fact that Fortis watches have spent longer in space than all other brands combined, and I was fascinated to read how they made the first automatic watch and Rolex had to stop saying they did it first.
On top of that there are some interesting factory tour articles and they seem like a friendly bunch. I don't know - they just feel like a nice company. I didn't even realise they're independent.
Here's a snap of my watch. I think it really suits this strap and it looks really striking on the wrist. Very pleased to have finally scratched the itch, ten years on!
Cheers
ped