Certina

Certina is a Swiss Made watch brand known for its vintage-inspired watches in the affordable luxury segment. The brand’s motto is “Swiss quality with a true sporting spirit — Since 1888,” highlighting its long history that began with brothers Adolf and Alfred Kurth, who set up their watch production facility in Grenchen. From the 1930s, the company began using the brand name Certina because it is easy to pronounce and it is based on the latin word “certus” that stands for “sure” or “certain.” Certina became the brand’s sole name in 1949. Since the 1960s, the brand’s logo has been a turtle shell that symbolizes robustness and longevity.

Certina is best known for its DS watch collections. DS stands for Double Security, referring to its “floating movement” concept introduced in 1959 to produce the most robust and water-resistant watches ever. The DS Concept means a watch movement entirely encased in an elastic shock absorber ring that protects against vibrations and impacts. The first Certina DS watches were guaranteed waterproof to an impressive depth of 200 meters, hence the DS or “Double Security” name.

Certina watches range from contemporary and elegant watches like the DS-1, DS-8, DS Podium and DS Action, designed for daily wear, to vintage-inspired sports watches such as the DS, DS-2 and DS-PH. Certina watches are fitted either with battery-powered quartz movements or automatic mechanical movements. A very popular movement found in Certina watches is the Powermatic 80, a modern automatic movement with 80 hours of power reserve, found in collections like the DS Action Diver.

For watch enthusiasts, the most popular Certina products tend to fall within the sportier Certina DS Action Diver and and Certina DS-PH collections.