Trial closes in legal battle between Swiss watch giant and Fort Collins’ Vortic Watch Co.

NEW YORK — A federal judge is due to rule in the coming weeks on a trademark dispute between Fort Collins watch restorer Vortic Watch Co. and Swiss watch conglomerate The Swatch Group Ltd. after a trial ended this week.

Swatch originally filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York in 2017. Through its subsidiary Hamilton International Ltd., Swatch claimed that Vortic’s method of modifying vintage pocket watches into wrist versions amounted to selling trademarked Hamilton watches without permission.

Vortic has argued that its modifications made it eligible for fair-use protections from copyright, and that there were enough changes made to differentiate it from modern Hamilton-made products.

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The lawsuit is a David vs. Goliath story: Vortic is a boutique startup, while Swatch had sales worth the U.S. dollar equivalent of $4.14 billion in the first half of 2019, according to its latest financial report.

Swatch owns a total of 20 different watch brand names, including Longines, Tissot and Omega, the official timekeeper for the Olympics and the watches worn by Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 mission to become the first humans to step foot on the moon.

In a post to its Facebook page, Vortic said it believes it successfully made its case and expects to receive a ruling within the next several weeks. The case is a bench trial, meaning that the judge overseeing the case will render a verdict instead of a jury.

Swatch did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.