The Swiss company Fortis is sure to be a main trendsetter of watches for pilots and astronauts. The most complicated chronographs have become an essential attribute of the air space brave heroes: Alexander Garnaev and Alexandre Paringaux set up the world record by MIG-25 wearing exactly Fortis watches; the same did Fred North by helicopter type AS 350 Ecureuill.
Since 1990 Mr Peter Peter has run the company and he did his best Fortis to get the status of the official timekeeper of the International Space Station ISS nowadays.
In 2001 the Russian Space Agency Rosaviakosmos awarded the order "Star of the blue planet" to Mr Peter Peter for participation in development of a mechanical chronograph for astronauts. How to conquer time to the extent of watches and send to the space in the exclusive interview with Mr Peter Peter and his son Max Peter.
- Peter, Max, what brand-new products shall we expect?
- We have three new models. The black chronograph from titanium, carbon-filled plastic and caoutchouc in our line for the International Space Station ISS. Then, the square chronograph which production started together with Swiss Airlines. This is the first square watch produced by Fortis. Also we have the new model Art Edition created together with the painter Rolf Sachs. His father, Gunter Sachs, is very famous and first of all for his marriage with Brigitte Bardot. This is an IQ Watch, because its face is made in form of a school blackboard and arithmetical calculations can be made using a "chalk". Thereby we continue our series of "artistic watches" which is produced every two years. This series is a tribute to my past, as before watch business I was a painter, a graphic designer and also made films.
- It was a very interesting turn in your biography. What kind of films did you make in your youth? About the space?
- At that time I was interested rather not in the space in a narrow sense but in the environmental conditions of our planet. We even had a club where we discussed what is expected for us in the future. In one of my projects I co-operated with Salvador Dali. I went to Spain to make a small film – a dialog with a genius. I spent a few days with him discussing what the human future in the view of those days’ great discoveries was, when the bounds were becoming wider and we could fly to the Moon, to the Mars and other planets. Everything took a very favourable turn. I took a picture of Salvador Dali sitting in the arm-chair and telling that our planet must be saved, at least because he had been living on the Earth already for 60 years. Now this filming is kept in the museum.
- It was amazing. And how did it happen that you’ve come to Fortis?
- I started to work in 1980s and there was a real quartz boom in the watch industry. My friend, who lived in London, sold Fortis watches there. It was a model with removable wristlets which immediately became very popular. I was so astonished by this model that instantly interested in this watch and tried to contact Fortis. I went to Switzerland and started to distribute Fortis to Germany. And I became the international director of management already in 1990.
- Do space watches have a special design or not?
- We can talk about the special design for space watches from the view of their functionality. For example, MCC (the Mission Control Centre) ordered a nonstandard mechanism – an automatic alarm clock with chronograph. All our watches take very serious tests. Since 1994 our company is the official timekeeper of the International Space Station (ISS). Also we are in the working partnership with Rosaviakosmos: Fortis Official Cosmonauts Chronograph is included into the standard outfit for spacewalks.
From the day of foundation Fortis produced watches for pilots, astronauts and divers. We have found our niche. The professional character is typical for all our watches.
- Peter, you are constantly working with space innovations. Do you believe in extraterrestrial civilizations?
- To tell in brief, you know that an alien airship with pilots crashed in American town Roswell in 1947. The queerest thing is that I was born in the same year. Most likely, I am one of them. But to be serious, I have been working with spacemen and scientists who investigate the universe for a very long time, and many of them are the good friends of mine. The astronauts told that they have seen nothing extraordinary. The scientists say that we have succeeded not so much in astrogation to draw conclusions. In my opinion, it is enough to look at the sky, where there are giga millions and billions of stars and galaxies, to understand how stupid is to think that there is no life in the entire multitude. It may be not exactly a civilization, like ours, but any other forms of life.
- What do you like most of all in your work?
- I like that our watches are not only image accessories, but the professional tools for real heroes: spacemen and military pilots. In 1995 the Russian pilot Alexander Garnaev and the Frenchman Alexandre Paringaux flied up to the exorbitant altitude of 30,000 metres by MIG-25 and set up the new world record, and in 2002 the French pilot Fred North broke a record altitude achieved in 1973, climbing to the record 12,954 metres by the helicopter AS 350 Ecureuill. They wore our watches and it is very pleasant to realize that our watches helped them to perform unbelievable feats. And, of course, I have succeeded in fulfillment myself as a painter, because design of many watches is my work.
- What is your attitude to the term "time"?
- For many years we have been searching and trying to understand what time is. I often talk to philosophers, painters and scientists about time: what is it, how we can conquer it and what is our mission in the universe. This is a very long process and it is very difficult even for scientists to understand the space-time continuum. The most amazing thing is to create a device to measure time without cognizing the time concept itself.
Natalia Andrianova
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