My new-to-me FORTIS B-42 Marine Master Day Date landed Friday and I just fell in love with it at first sight, right as I open the box and gave it a first look and that does not happen often with me!   I had been wanting one for a while and either passed for lack of funds or it sold before I made a move or… maybe I was worried its 42mm case with 20mm lugs would be an issue as some had told me it was a smaller watch.

It all works real well together, the designers really did an awesome job, the dial is truly stunning, more than my cell phone pics can show(definitely not doing this watch justice). I love the orange second hand sweeping extremely smoothly (amazing actually)over the black dial. The whole dial/hand/bezel combo is awesome as is the contrasting White as white can get numerals and markers on the black dial. The double coated sapphire crystal just seems to disappear at times and you just feel like you could reach in and grab the hands!! It is amazing how it brings out the beauty of the dial and contrast! The case back is also beautiful and the crown shows the Fortis logo as well. The watch finish is very high quality, favorably comparing to more expensive watches. The brushed SS finish is perfect and I also love the lug screw bars, solid, clean look, easy to work with!  Mine came with the FORTIS leather but the prior owner bought a deployant FORTIS clasp for it, which I like better than the also included Fortis tang buckle. Finally, the presentation is also “soigné” with a beautiful leather box and wallet for the papers.

• Movement – Automatic ETA 2836-2, 11 1/2 ”’, stop second, fine timing device, 25 jewels, 28,800 semi-vibrations per hour, Incabloc shock absorber
• Function – Hours, minutes and sweep second, day/date indication
• Case – 42mm w/o crown, 13mm thick,  Stainless steel, brushed, unidirectional rotating bezel (120) in black with 60-minute scale, flange with 13h-24h scale, sapphire crystal anti-reflective on both sides, screw down case back, crown with logo, water resistant 200 m (20 ATM)
• Dial / Hands – Black, Arabic numbers as well as indexes and hands coated with white Superluminova, sweep second hand in orange with white Superluminova dot
• Attachment – Black padded leather strap with brushed steel buckle
• Uniqueness – 42 mm case diameter, colored triangles indicating direction for function adjustment, engraved with the logos of Russian space authories: Russian Space Agency and Yu. A. Gagarin Cosmonauts Star City Training Center
• Packing – Leather box with cushion, manual, international warranty card
• Options – 647.10.11 LF PROF leather strap with folding buckle “Professional”
• Thickness – 12.5mm
• Weight – 110g with leather strap

Well Brice...I'm clearly late in congratulating you on the Fortis B-42 Marinemaster arrival!!!!  But...better late than never, so CONGRATS amigo, and welcome to the club!!!!  I don't know how I missed this post.

Don't let the lack of screw-down crown bother you one bit (unless you forget to push the crown in)...WatchTime published a detailed article several years back with a comparison test of dive watches (Fortis B-42 Marinemaster, Sinn U2, Breitling Superocean Steelfish, Doxa Sub 750T, a Mido dive watch of some kind, and others). The test was done according to the ISO 6425 diver watch standards which requires the watch be submerged in water at 125% of the rated pressure, duration 60 minutes - 25 bar (250 m) in the case of the Fortis. The watch must continue running without noticeable rate change, and no water intrusion is allowed.

Enjoy this sweet Fortis icon Brice!!!...

Last edited on Wed Apr 13th, 2011 10:05 pm by stew77