Fortis Flieger Werk 7 Review

When I started collecting watches around twenty five years ago there really only seemed to be two kinds of watches on my radar, those were dive watches and pilot's watches. Oddly most of the pilot's watches I was looking at were chronographs and kind of blurred the lines between pilot's watches and sports watches. This is actually pretty funny because I ended up not being a huge fan of chronographs as I evolved as a collector.

My first two watches ended up being dive watches in the Omega Seamaster 300M GMT and the Seamaster Planet Ocean. After filling my thirst for dive watches I started looking at more technical chronographs. The brands I was looking at were IWC, Sinn, Oris and Fortis. All four offered amazing choices and in the end I found an IWC GST Chronograph Automatic in titanium at an unbeatable price and added it to my collection. After the GST I ended up selling my collection and wearing pre-owned watches that were way past what my income would allow me to afford that were in stock at the online watch sales site I created.



Why do I find this story pertinent to the watches I'm reviewing today? Well we're going to be taking a look at the newest collection of watches from Fortis. Before I ended up purchasing that first IWC I spent ungodly amounts of time looking at and researching various Fortis watches while trying to make up my mind of what chronograph to purchase. Even with all that time spent looking into Fortis and then being in the industry for twenty years, I never really spent any time with Fortis watches in the metal. I know the brand well, but just on a theoretical level. With Fortis sending me these watches I finally get to see what makes the brand tick (sorry…).

Before we get into the watches in the new Flieger Werk 7 collection from Fortis, let's first go over the history of the brand. Fortis was founded over a century ago in Grenchen, Switzerland by Walter Vogt. Fortis was picked for the brand name since it meant "strong" in Latin and Vogt intended his watches to be incredibly robust.

Although Fortis was founded in 1912, the first big impact the brand had on the industry occurred in 1926. In that year Fortis partnered with John Harwood who was a British inventor who is credited with creating the first automatic wristwatch. This partnership resulted in the creation of the Harwood Automatic which was the first mass-produced automatic watch. It's impossible to stress how large of an accomplishment this was and how it would influence the world of horology.



A decade later in 1937, on their twenty-fifth anniversary, Fortis released their first chronograph, a complication that is something the brand would firmed by linked to in the future. In 1943 Fortis released the Fortissimo, which was one of the earliest water resistant watches. The Fortissimo showed that Fortis was dedicated to creating timepieces that could withstand the elements and were true to their "strong" brand name.

1956 brought upon the release of the Fortis Manager which was a waterproof automatic watch that featured an alarm complication. The Manager even won numerous chronometer awards which was impressive for a tough sports watch. In 1962 Fortis introduced the Spacematic which was designed to cope with the extreme conditions encountered in space along with space flight. This was the first time Fortis started to experiment with watches meant for aviation and space travel, something that would soon become paramount to the brand.

One of the most important models for the brand saw its release in 1987. This year saw the introduction of the Flieger collection by Fortis. The Flieger watches used classic pilot's watch design and would become very influential in the industry. The Flieger collection was even released nearly a decade before IWC started producing pilot's watches again. IWC are probably the brand that is most associated with pilot's watches today.



The 1990s were a decade focused on Fortis' involvement in the space industry, which was an idea first touched upon by the Spacematic in 1962. In 1994 the Fortis Official Cosmonauts Chronograph became the official watch of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and was used in space for the first time. In 1997 Fortis watches were also worn during the German-Russian MIR 97 space mission. The end of the 1990s also saw the introduction of the world's first automatic chronograph watch that also featured a mechanical alarm.

In 2001 the B-42 Cosmonauts Chronograph was introduced and would go on to become a flagship model for Fortis. 2012 brought on the 100th anniversary of Fortis and with it the F-43 Pilot Chronograph Alarm GMT which brought together so many important aspects from the history of Fortis including the pilot's watch, chronographs and alarm watches.



Entering the late 2010's Fortis was in financial crisis and following a restructuring in 2017, Jupp Philipp ended up acquiring the brand in 2018. Jupp is a self-admitted fan boy of Fortis and a dream became a reality when he was able to purchase the brand. This new era for Fortis brought forth innovation and passion from the brand. Since Jupp took over, Fortis has started to really see large advancements in areas such as case materials and refining their in-house movements.

Initial Thoughts

Now that we've gone over the history of Fortis, let's now look more in detail at the four watches that Fortis sent us to review. Fortis sent us the complete collection of the limited edition Flieger Werk 7 watches. These comprise of two 39 mm models and two larger 41 mm watches. The watches are built around the in-house Werk 7 movement. This movement offers a full 70 hours of power reserve as well as a variable-inertia regulation system which ensures stability and accuracy even in extreme situations like being in the cockpit of a fighter jet. The Werk 7 also uses an oversized bridge with double fixation of the balance wheel which gives unparalleled shock resistance to the regulating organ. All this combines to make the Werk 7 an ideal movement for pilots and other professionals that encounter circumstances that might stress less robust watches.



When the Flieger Werk 7 watches arrived the first thing I noticed about them was their recycled stainless steel cases that were treated with black DLC coating. The DLC coating not only gives the watches their stunning black looks, but also increases the hardness rating of the stainless steel to around 4,500 vickers, which ensures the watches are extremely rough. This rating is over twenty times higher than the standard 150-200 vickers of un-treated stainless steel and should also help the watches resist getting scratched.

The second thing I noticed about the Flieger Werk 7 watches when they arrived was how they were rather lightweight. Typically larger stainess steel watches incur a weight penalty and I was a bit worried the Flieger Werk 7 would follow suit. Much to my delight and surprise the 41 mm models weighed in at 112 grams, while the 39 mm watches came in at 103 grams both including their rubber straps and pin buckles. While not featherweights, both of those weights were far from a watch I'd consider heavy.



The final thing I noticed about the Flieger Werk 7 watches was the Tactical Green colorway. These two watches have an olive green dial and rubber strap that instantly make you think of the color of military aviation flight suits. The orange touches found along the upper minute track, seconds hand and "Automatic" text also compliment the green nicely. Tactical Green is definitely a unique color and these watches really look unlike anything else I can think of. The black colored models do offer more contrast and the white and orange details do pop off of the dial much more though.

Technical Specifications

Having gone over my initial impressions on the Fortis Flieger Werk 7 watches, now let's take a look at the technical specifications of the watches. The watches are crafted out of recycled stainless steel that have a black diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating applied to them. This gives the watches an all black look and a tremendous hardness rating of 4,500 vickers.

The F-39 models have a case diameter of 38.8 mm and a lug to lug length of 50 mm. They weigh in at 103 grams on our scale and at their thickest point are 12.5 mm tall. The F-41 models have a case diameter of 40.8 mm and a lug to lug length of 52.3 mm. The F-41 watches weighed in at 112 grams and at their thickest point are also 12.5 mm tall.



The Flieger Werk 7 watches use a flat sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides. Both F-39 and F-41 watches feature a tall rehaut and around the outside of the dial is a white printed minute track with applied white block hour markers. 12 o'clock uses the flieger triangle like what was found on traditional pilot's watches. The hour markers are coated with Super-Luminova X1 which glows a strong green in low light. There are three centrally mounted hands on the Flieger Werk 7 watches being the hour, minute and seconds hands. The hour and minute hands are also traditional flieger style hands and the slender seconds hand is orange that matches the highlighted minute track between 11 and 1. The hour and minute hands are also coated in matching Super-Luminova X1.

Fortis branding and "Flieger" are printed at 12 o'clock while "F-39" or "F-41", "Automatic" and "Swiss Made" are printed at 6 with "Automatic" done in orange. White printed Arabic numerals are used for the hour markers and at 3 is a black backed date window. The Tactical Green versions get a matte olive green dial while the Mission Black versions have a matte black dial.

Moving on from the dial is the concave bi-directional twelve hour bezel. This bezel has an amazing action to it with absolutely zero back play or slop. The bezel requires 24 turns to make a full rotation and clicks nicely into each half hour increment. The 12 hour bezel can be used for a variety of things including tracking a second time zone or measuring an elapsed time. The bezel features small Arabic numerals for each hour and slopes down at a near 45 degree angle to the sapphire crystal. While the bezel is fairly thin, it is still nicely scalloped and grip was never an issue.



Being a tool watch, nothing is polished on the case of the Fortis Flieger Werk 7 with all surfaces being brushed. Looking at the profile of the watch you can see the lugs curve down to follow your wrist nicely. A very nice touch is that the lugs are drilled and the strap is fixed with screws instead of springbars, which is something I just love to see and gives me more confidence of the watch staying on wrist.

The right hand side of the watch features a stainless steel screw-down crown with the Fortis logo on top of it. Like the bezel, the crown is nicely scalloped and should be able to be operated with gloves on. The screw down crown aids in the water resistance of 200 meters as well. When the crown is unscrewed you can manually wind the automatic movement in its resting position. Pulling the crown out to position one allows you to set the date and pulling the crown out all the way to position two stops the seconds hand and lets you set the time. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minutes hand and screwing the crown back in requires no extra care to get it to catch.

Both the F-39 and F-41 have lug widths of 21 mm with rubber straps that taper down to 20 mm at the DLC coated pin buckles with Fortis branding on them. Fortis uses hybrid FKM rubber straps that have a textile topside. The Tactical Green models have an olive green strap while the Mission Black models come on a black strap. The pattern on the top of the strap resembles rows of "Z"s, while the back of the straps have repeating square patterns that grip the wrist well.



Flipping the watch over shows off the stainless steel screw down caseback with a smoked sapphire display back. Important information about the watches are engraved on the caseback as is "One of 100", which is what each of these pieces is limited to. On the sapphire is printed "Ohne Flieger Ware Der Himmel Nur Luft", meaning "Wihtout pilots, the sky would be just air" along with a drawing of a propeller. This really stresses the importance of aviation to Fortis.

Being a tool watch the movement isn't finished in a flashy manner but rather has an anthracite finishing on it. The partially skeletonized winding rotor has a brushed finish to it and features the Fortis crown logo. The main bridges have been micro-blasted giving them a matte granular surface. The dark grey finishing of the movement makes the balance and gears really pop out as well.



As mentioned earlier the Fortis Flieger Werk 7 watches are powered by the in-house automatic caliber Werk 7 which is Swiss Made. The movement beats away at 28,800 vph (4Hz) and has a power reserve of 70 hours. The Werk 7 features variable-inertia regulation which helps keep the watch accurate in any position as well as a doubled fixed balance for increased shock absorption. On our timegrapher all four of the watches showed an accuracy of between +1 to +3 seconds per day when averaged out over several positions which is inside of chronometer standards.

On The Wrist

If you've read any of my reviews then it's no secret that I prefer larger watches. Typically case diameter isn't the most important dimension to me, but rather lug to lug length. I really like to wear watches that have a minimum lug to lug length of 50 mm. Surprisingly to me even the F-39 with its roughly 39 mm case diameter still has a lug to lug length of exactly 50 mm. This actually made the smaller F-39 feel proportionate and comfortable on my wrist.



I still did prefer the extra two millimeters of the F-41 though, which has a lug to lug length of 52.3 mm. I feel while 50 mm is still in my goldilocks zone for lug to lug lengths on my 7.25 inch wrist with a 55 mm flat area, 52 to 54 mm is really my preferred size. The smaller F-39 seems to be very versatile and could fit a wide range of wrist sizes.

I was a little concerned when I saw the Flieger Werk 7 watches were crafted out of stainless steel since I associate that material with heavy watches. In my personal collection I skew towards titanium, ceramic and carbon to keep weight down when dealing with larger watches. Much to my surprise the smaller F-39 came in at 103 grams and the larger F-41 was only 112 grams. While these watches are not featherweights, they are a more than acceptable weight for their sizes. The F-39 did seem to disappear on the wrist which I really liked. The F-41 felt very light, but it still made its presence known. Neither watch gave me any sense of wrist fatigue even on longer wearing stints.

The F-39 and F-41 both share their case height dimension of 12.5 mm as well as their lug width of 21 mm. Somehow both watches look proportionate and the F-39 doesn't come off looking squatty and the F-41 doesn't look like a dinner plate with the same thickness and different case diameters. The 21 mm strap width does an exceptional job securing the watch to your wrist and keeping it from moving around or favoring one side of the wrist over the other.



I do personally prefer the F-41 to the F-39 based on my now somewhat outdated preferences for larger watches, but feel the F-39 would probably be the better piece to wear daily since it's just that much more manageable. The F-41 does make more of a statement and has better wrist presence. Initially I also do tend to prefer the Tactical Green watches over their Mission Black counterparts. I'm not sure if this is just the novelty of the color and over time if I'd end up liking the black more for its traditional looks. During my time with the watches I did tend to heavily favor the Tactical Green models when picking a watch to wear.

To test legibility I use a simple test where I try to see how hard it is to tell the time at just a glance while driving. Dive watches always do the best in this test due to their larger dials that feature very high contrast and often large hands and numerals. Pilot's watches also excel in these tests, so I expected the Fortis Flieger Werk 7 to fair well, which they did. There was really no difference between the F-39 and F-41 in terms of legibility, but there was between the Tactical Green and Mission Black dials. The contrast between the black dial and white markers and hands just can't be beat and the olive green dials did suffer the tiniest bit. Fortis also uses a decent amount of lume on the Flieger Werk 7 dials, so telling the time in low light was more than adequate.



I wore the four versions of the Fortis Flieger Werk 7 on various errands and out to dinner and drinks. Like I mentioned before the watches are great wrist companions and did very well in day to day life. The smaller F-39s were just that much more manageable on the wrist, but the F-41s were very comfortable on wrist as well, just you do notice the slightly larger size and extra weight when switching between both watches. I'd say that the Tactical Green watches did draw more attention than the Mission Black versions and I had a few people ask me about the green watches and nobody approached me about the black ones. I still find the Tactical Green watches rather stealth, but I guess the green straps and orange hits on the dial do attract attention.

Value and Position in the Market

One of the most important things to consider when talking about a watch is its price and value in the market. All four variants of the Fortis Flieger Werk 7 retail for $4,250. For this price you are getting a stunning recycled stainless steel case that has a black DLC coating. The watches also come with an excellent and very accurate in-house caliber with more than enough 70 hours of power reserve. Fortis has a long history in the aeronautical sector as well. Like we do with all of our reviews, now would be a good time to compare the Flieger Werk 7 watches to other watches with similar features and specifications and see how they stack up value wise.



First up we have the Pilot's Watch Automatic Top Gun from IWC which has a 41 mm case crafted out of matte black ceramic. The Top Gun is more of a classic Pilot's watch with no rotating bezel like that featured on the Flieger Werk 7. The watch is powered by an in-house automatic movement with a very long 120 hour power reserve. The Top Gun does have a lot less water resistance at 60 meters and cost a good deal more than the Fortis at $6,700.

Next up is the Avenger Automatic 42 from Breitling which has a 42 mm case crafted out of stainless steel. The Avenger features a rotating 60 minute bezel which can be used for elapsed timing. The Breitling is powered by a modified movement based off of an ETA or Sellita movement with only 38 hours of power reserve. The Avenger does have much more water resistance at a diver like 300 meters. The Breitling is also a little bit more expensive than the Fortis at $4,900.

Moving on is the Propilot Holstein Edition 2025 from Oris which has a DLC coated stainless steel case with a 41 mm case diameter. The Propilot has a fully luminous dial and is powered by an in-house automatic movement with an incredible 120 hours of power reserve. The Oris has half the water resistance of the Fortis at 100 meters and cost a little bit more at $5,000.



Finally we have the BR-03 Black Matte from Bell & Ross which is crafted out of black ceramic and has a case size of 41 mm. The BR-03 is not a traditional looking pilot's watch, but it has established itself as one of the modern icons of the genre with its square case and instrument gauge like dial. The BR-03 is powered by a modified off the shelf movement with 54 hours of power reserve. The Bell & Ross also offers half the water resistance at 100 meters and cost slightly less than the Fortis at $4,100.

Looking at these four watches you can tell that the Fortis Flieger Werk 7 offers great value for the money. Besides the Bell & Ross which runs on an off the shelf movement, the Fortis is the least expensive of the group and offers specs that are mostly at the top of the group. The one area where the Werk 7 did fall a bit behind was to the watches with 120 hour power reserves, but to be honest five day power reserves are very rare and a bit overkill for daily worn watches.

Closing Thoughts

So in the end are the Fortis Flieger Werk 7 watches for me? When it comes down to it I believe they really are. The F-39 watches are right at the bottom of where I'd personally collect a watch size wise, but the F-41 firmly sits in my preferred range of around 52 mm lug to lug length. The in-house Werk 7 movement is a great accomplishment for Fortis and not only offers a very nice 70 hours of power reserve, but also is deadly accurate. The watches also wear very well and despite being made out of stainless steel really don't accrue that much of a weight penalty.



The hardest part for me would be to pick between the Tactical Green and Mission Black versions. If the Flieger Werk 7 was going to be my only watch I'd probably go with the Mission Black since the watch is less polarizing and would fit in better in more situations. Being that isn't the case, I really do like how the Tactical Green F-41 really looks unlike any watch I own or can really think of. I like how the green of the strap matches the dial perfectly and how the orange elements contrast with the green dial as well. For those reasons, my personal pick of the collection would be the Flieger F-41 Werk 7 Tactical Green.

So then would I recommend the Flieger Werk 7 to somebody looking for a higher end pilot's watch? With the watch being available in both 39 and 41 mm versions, there really is a version that would work well on most wrists. That person would have to like the look of blacked out watches though. The Mission Black models are subtle enough to easily be worn every day, while the Tactical Green models are for somebody who has a larger collection or normally dresses more casual. As I've mentioned many times, not only are these watches great looking pieces but they are also powered by a very impressive in-house movement and for what you're getting are priced more than fairly.



I'd really like to thank Fortis for sending us these four watches. While I have been very familiar with Fortis for decades I had never spent any real time with them in the metal. I've always heard good things about Fortis previously, but it really seems the newest generation watches are heads and shoulders above their offerings from the 90s and 2000s. I'm really interested to see what other innovations and models Fortis will introduce in the near future and hopefully we can get more models in to review shortly. These four Flieger Werk 7 watches served as a great physical introduction to the brand.

For more information about the Flieger Werk 7 watches please visit : Fortis

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: F4220030 F-41 Mission Black, F4220031 F-41 Tactical Green, F4220028 F-39 Mission Black, F4220029 F-39 Tactical Green

Retail Price: $4,250

Case Size: 38.8 mm F-39, 40.8 mm F-41

Lug to Lug: 50 mm F-39, 52.3 mm F-41

Thickness: 12.5 mm

Weight: 103 grams F-39, 112 grams F-41

Case Material: DLC Coated Recycled Stainless Steel

Bezel: Bi-Directional 24 Click 12 Hour Bezel

Strap: FKM Rubber Backed Strap with a Textile Top Insert

Movement: In-House Swiss Made Automatic Werk 7

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds and Date

Power Reserve: 70 Hours

Water Resistance: 200 Meters