It’s easily one of the most gorgeous and desirable watches we’ve ever seen, with a space-age connection adding to its matte black and orange glamour.
The Fortis B-42 Black Mars 500 chronograph is the official watch of the Mars 500 cosmonauts, the mad people who volunteered to live in a collection of sealed tubes in Russia, in an experiment simulating a 520 day journey to Mars.
No doubt such a long period of isolation would involve a lot of clock-watching, but with the Earth-bound cosmonauts each being equipped with these beauties, at least they could enjoy a stylish view.
The watch features distinctive orange numerals protected by a tough-as-nails AR-treated sapphire crystal, with the official MARS 500 Mission logo engraved on the side of the case, and emblems of the Russian space authorities on the back.
Production is restricted to just 2,012 models for the self winding wonder, which packs 25 jewels and an Incabloc shock absorber inside its 42mm black PVD-coated high-grade titanium case.
Water-resistant to 200m, this lovely looking thing will set you back around £3,000 – so we’ve got as much chance of owning one of these thing as we have of taking a stroll on Olympus Mons.
Here’s the tech stuff:
Limited Edition 2012 FORTIS B-42 BLACK MARS 500
Movement Automatic Swiss movement 220, 11 1/2 ”’, 25 jewels
28.800 semi-vibrations per hour
fine timing device and Incabloc shock absorber
Function Hour, minute, centre-stop-second, day/date indication
day indication bilingual English and German
Case Titanium black PVD, three-parts, 42 mm case diameter
black turning bezel with 60-minute scale
unidirectional (120 divisions)
Superluminova capsule at Pos. 12 h flange with hour-scale 13 to 24 h
sapphire crystal anti-reflective on both sides
screw-down titanium case back
water-resistant 200 m / 20 bar
Dial/Hands Black matte, triangles at pos. 3 h next to the date and day indication illustrating the direction of rotating the crown for quick adjustment arabic numerals, indices and hands with Superluminova orange green afterglow in the darkness orange second-hand with luminous dot
Attachment Leather strap black padded, with orange contrast stitching fitted to the caseSpecial Features Limited Edition 2012 pieces
issued on the occasion of the MARS flight simulation of 520 daysofficial MARS 500 Mission logo engraved on the side of the case
case back embossed with the emblems of the Russian space authorities
