You’re looking for a tough pilot's watch but you don’t want the same old style. The same that everyone else has. Plus you’d like more than a touch of space. Luckily, the long established high-end workwatch specialists Fortis of Grenchen in Switzerland have just the thing, and you see it here: complete with heat-treated dial, hand crafted to resemble what happens to an space capsule as it re-enters the earth’s atmosphere from space. We’re in Kubrik’s ‘2001, A Space Odyssey’ already.
Each dial is, say Fortis, entirely unique. Flame is hand-applied to the titanium of the dial, and while the result is guaranteed dramatic, it’s also guaranteed to be never the same on any two occasions. Blue? Violet? Orange? You’ll see them all. And then some.
There is so much more than a unique dial to this timepiece, as you’d expect from such a venerable maker. The basis for the Reentry Edition is Fortis’s well-received Stratoliner S-41, which features a handy 200m of water resistance, handy for splashdown. What’s more, the inner workings, the Fortis Werk 17 Caliber, have literally been to space on a mission with the Swedish Space Corporation. Yes, that’s right: and this extraordinary fastidiousness in authenticity is at one with all that Fortis stands for.
Jup Philipp is the current custodian of this low-key celebrated Swiss watch brand, founded in 1912. He’s been keen to get back to the roots of Fortis, telling one interviewer: “I follow one rule: there is no function without design and there is no design without function”, adding tellingly that “we won’t offer a design because it looks good”. The Reentry Edition, in other words, is one serious timepiece.
Stratoliner Reentry Edition: The details
This is a watch that’s not at all reticent about its impact as a serious piece of personal jewellery. Case in recycled stainless steel is a hefty 41mm x 50mm x 15mm. Two chronograph pushers join a conventional crown to operate the space-tested movement. There’s a formidable 60 hours of power reserve too.
The Fortis Werk 17 caliber is, as you’d expect from such a sophisticated piece of hand made engineering, visible through the watch back, finished in form follows function matte black. That heat treated dial has highly visible yet minimally designed features. Jupp Phillip has made a watch for himself, or as he puts it about the company as a whole: “Who wouldn’t want to own a childhood dream? For me Fortis was the dream I wasn’t aware of. Now it’s a mission.”
And so it comes to the question of how much you’re going to need to add the Reentry Edition to your essential timepiece collection, remembering that form follows function design is for all occasions, not merely for those when you’re escaping the planet for a few hours to circle the moon. Given the cost of spaceflight these days, we’d say that the £4,800 that Fortis are asking for this little Swiss masterpiece is a bargain. See you on the dark side.
Next up: The best GMT watches for men in 2026.
