This Watch Was Designed to Go to Mars. It’s Not from the Brand You’d Expect

Equipped with a space-tested movement and a communication-delay bezel, Fortis’s new chronograph is destined for the red planet.

fortis watch on the wrist of an astronaut

By Johnny Brayson

Published May 13, 2024

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When we think of space watches, there is one watch that comes to mind: the Omega Speedmaster. The iconic chronograph was the first watch to be certified for manned space missions by NASA, the first watch worn on the moon and it remains the most popular choice among astronauts even today.

But despite the Speedy’s inseparable connection to outer space, it’s far from the only watch to spend time in the final frontier. From Rolex to Seiko, many watch brands have ventured beyond Earth’s atmosphere. One of the most notable is Swiss tool watchmaker Fortis, whose Cosmonaut Chronograph became the official space watch of the Russian equivalent to NASA, Roscosmos, in 1994.

30 years later, Fortis has launched (no pun intended) its greatest space watch yet with the Novonaut AMADEE-24, a watch designed specifically for future manned missions to Mars. Here’s what’s special about it.

Fortis Novonaut AMADEE-24

$6,150 at Fortis

Tested in Mars-like Conditions on Earth

Fortis certainly didn’t take any shortcuts with regard to ensuring the Novonaut AMADEE-24 would be up to the task of handling the red planet’s harsh environment.

The watch was battle-tested at AMADEE-24, a Mars analog simulation project that concluded last week in the desolate Ararat province of Armenia. The four-week simulation was managed by the Austrian Space Forum and featured a team of analog astronauts — space suits and all — conducting human-robotic missions to gather data that will inform future Martian missions. The team included over 200 scientists from more than two dozen countries and advanced equipment, including rovers, conducting experiments in the fields of geology, engineering, psychology and more.

fortis watch on astronaut wrist — The Novonaut was part of the equipment used by analog astronauts during the AMADEE-24 Mars simulation mission.

And going through this testing on the wrists of the analog astronauts was the Fortis Novonaut. The watch was used specifically for communications between the team on the ground in Armenia and the mission control center in Austria. To simulate communications between Earth and Mars — which take ten minutes to arrive — the astronauts made use of the Fortis’s unique communication-delay tracker bezel.

The bezel, which is coated in super-strong glowing X1 Super-LumiNova, features a countdown timer with special ten-minute markers that make it easy to anticipate when sent communications will be received.

Tested in Space

fortis watch movements in space — No other watch movement has undergone this sort of dedicated outer space testing.

An Earth-based simulation can only go so far in recreating an outer space mission, so any space watch worth its salt must also be tested outside of Earth’s atmosphere.

The Fortis checks this box thanks to its movement. The watch is powered by Fortis’s WERK 17 automatic chronograph caliber, which debuted in 2022 as the first-ever movement to be tested in space. In collaboration with the Swedish Space Corporation, the movements were mounted to a gondola on a stratospheric balloon and launched to the edge of space, where they endured microgravity, micro-density, extreme temperatures and radiation exposure before returning to Earth still ticking.

In addition to its zero-gravity bona fides, the movement beats at 4Hz, boasts a 60-hour power reserve and features a day-date indicator in addition to the column wheel chronograph.

A Serious Tool Watch for Mars or Earth

The unique bezel and space-tested movement of the Novonaut AMADEE-24 make it uniquely suited for Martian missions, but it’s an impressive tool watch for more terrestrial usage, too. The watch’s 42mm case and bracelet are made of lightweight titanium — a first for the Novonaut line — and features a sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides.

fortis watch on wrist — Of course, you don’t need to be a Martian astronaut to wear the new Novonaut.

A screw-down crown backed by an FKM triple-gasket system ensures 200m of water resistance, which admittedly is a feature that will come in a lot handier here on Earth than on bone-dry Mars. The watch is also setup to glow like a torch in the dark conditions of Mars and Earth, with indices made of Lumicast — a three-dimensional ceramic form of Super-LumiNova.

What’s more, the dial upsized the chronograph’s 30-minute counter — Fortis calls it a Grand Counter — to make readings of timed experiments easier. Rounding out the dial, an AMADEE-24 mission patch appears at 6 o’clock, a day-date indicator shows up at 3 o’clock and the running seconds indicator at 9 o’clock has a retro space age-inspired design.

So what’s the bad news? Well, the watch is limited to just 100 examples — at least on Earth. It’s priced at $6,150 and is available directly from Fortis today.