Brand · Certina

Certina Watches: Swiss Reliability Under the Sign of the Turtle

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Certina's story begins in 1888 in Grenchen, in the Swiss canton of Solothurn, where the brothers Adolf and Alfred Kurth opened a small factory for watch parts and movements, with three employees in a workshop next to the family home. Their first brand name was Grana, short for Granacus, the Latin name of Grenchen. The name Certina, from the Latin certus, meaning sure or certain, was officially registered in 1939. In the 1920s Alfred's sons Erwin and Hans joined the business. Certina later belonged to ASUAG and, after its merger with SSIH, became a founding member of the group renamed The Swatch Group in 1998. It is now one of the group's brands of mid-range Swiss watches.

The brand's signature is the Certina DS concept. Introduced in 1959, "Double Security" combines a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, a reinforced case back and an improved sealing system for better shock and water resistance; the first DS model was water-resistant to 200 m. Its emblem, the turtle, has stood for robustness and longevity since the 1960s and joined the logo in 2013. In 1960 every member of the Swiss-led expedition that first climbed Dhaulagiri wore a Certina, and the watches later served in the Sealab II and Tektite underwater projects. On the technical side, the ETA-made Powermatic 80 automatic movement offers up to 80 hours of power reserve, in current models with an anti-magnetic Nivachron balance spring, while thermocompensated Precidrive quartz is rated at ±10 seconds per year. Selected references are COSC-certified chronometers.

The current lineup is led by DS Action, a sport and diving collection whose Diver models are ISO 6425-certified and water-resistant up to 300 m, and by DS-8, which pairs technical performance with style in chronometer, chronograph and moon-phase versions. Lines such as DS Podium with 1/10-second quartz chronographs, the classic DS Caimano and the women's lines DS Stella, DS Queen and DS Dream round out the range. Divers will appreciate a rugged Swiss dive watch, motorsport fans a precise quartz chronograph and lovers of mechanics a Powermatic 80 automatic watch. True to its motto "Count on me", Certina suits anyone who wants a dependable everyday watch.

38 watches

Certina