Fortis Art Edition Mattern Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Aug 26th 2010 at 12:01PM

For a while Fortis watches have come in special "art edition" forms. These highly artistic renditions of the popular dive, pilot, and overall high intensity activity watches provides an interesting departure from staunch utility. This is the Fortis Art Edition Mattern watch that looks a lot like something from the 1980s. With a look that mixes pop art and bauhaus, the timepiece is part of a collaboration with artist Michael Mattern - whose work is known to use a variety of colorful geometric shapes, and mechanical style imagery.

He designed the dial (and perhaps case) of the watch. To me it feels like a combo of Swatch and Max Bill. The case is 40mm wide in satin finished steel with a fascinating dial in white, black, yellow, and blue - that is partially skeletonized. While artistic, the dial is still easy to read. In addition to the metal bracelet, the watch is available with a black, yellow, or blue rubber strap. The movement is likely a Swiss ETA 2824 automatic, and the case is water resistant to 200 meters and has a sapphire crystal. Overall a very cool design and great project between Michael Mattern and Fortis. The watch is limited to 2012 pieces, and is priced at about $2,000.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch reviews site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: art, Fortis, limited edition, Michael Mattern, watch