Marking time for COSMONAUTS

摘要

FORTIS (from the Latin for "strong") was established by Walter Vogt and thanks to a cooperation with John Harwood, the Englishman who invented the automatic wristwatch movement, started to produce this ground-breaking movement commercially. Exactly twenty-five years ago, FORTIS was selected as the official chronograph maker for all Roscosmos cosmonauts. The first wristwatch in space was worn by a space dog named Chernuchka (Blackie) aboard the Sputnik 4 spacecraft launched on 9 March 1961. Chernuchka's time piece was a simple Pobeda "Victory" watch made by the Petrodvorets watch factory in Saint-Petersburg. The first cosmonauts of the 1960s were mostly selected from the corps of Soviet military jet pilots and used military time pieces. Upon graduation at the Air Force pilot school, young officers received a simple 33 mm Sturmanskie (Navigator) pilot's watch, or later a rugged Strela (Arrow) mechanical chronograph produced exclusively by the 1st Moscow Watch Factory. Although these standard watches were not specially commissioned, each timepiece performed flawlessly and remained in service until the late 1970s.