I want to know what is going on in 2012 that is so important to Fortis. Is it the estimated year for us to start a mission to Mars? Maybe that is it. I know Fortis has a few watches it would like to go there. A few of the new cool Fortis limited edition watches to be announced are limited to 2012 pieces. For example the (freakin’ awesome) Fortis Cargo Spaceleader watch. Well another “2012” watch to be released is this phantom version of the B-42. I grabbed a glimpse of it on the WatchTime website. Surly, but experienced Mr. Disher over there wrote about it. He doesn’t like me very much, but I’ll thank him anyway.

Normally, I wouldn’t dedicated an entire post to just a new “phantom” watches, but this Fortis B-42 Black & Black Automatic Day/Date limited edition watch does something different that I really appreciate. Everything about the watch case and dial are black. Black, and more black. Hence the name of the watch. Fortis wasn’t happy just being a run of the mill stealth watch. So it make the hands and day/date windows easy to read! So you get the cool look of an all matte black watch, that you don’t need to struggle to read. It seems like such an obvious thing, but I haven’t see it before. Plus, the hands are covered in SuperLumiNova, so they will glow (actually, the dial hour markers are also lume most likely, and glow a sort of dull gray).

The watch has a 42mm wide titanium case that is treated with black PVD. It is water resistant to 200 meters and has a rotating diver’s bezel. The case back of the watch has some Russian Space program engravings. Especially in regard to their participation with the ISS (International Space Station). Inside the watch is an automatic mechanical ETA 2836-2 movement. The day disc actually have the days in both German and English. You can set it to display one or the other. The watch is available with the black rubber strap, or a black leather strap, both with black titanium folding clasps. For me, this is the first stealth watch that I can see myself owning because it would actually be easy to read and fun to wear. Price has yet to be determined. Figure a some premium over the standard Fortis B-42 watch models.

See Fortis watches on eBay here.

See Fortis watches on Amazon here. [phpbay]fortis, num, “14324”, “”[/phpbay]