The Swatch Group is massive, even compared to other watch conglomerates. Its portfolio of 16 watch brands is the world’s largest, and many of these watchmakers are household names, including Omega, Longines and Tissot.
But with so many brands operating under the same umbrella, it’s unsurprising that some slip under the radar. One of the least known, at least in the U.S. where it has very little retail presence, is Certina.
Certina is one of the most affordable brands in the Swatch Group stable, but don’t mistake affordability for cheapness: the brand makes some of the toughest watches in the business, and it has nearly 140 years of history to fall back on.
Among Certina’s offerings, perhaps the most impressive come from the brand’s DS Action Diver line, with the brand’s latest additon to the collection making a strong case as the best dive watch under $1,000.
Goldi-Shocks
The DS Action Diver gets its name from its DS Concept case, a shock-resistant technology that Certina first introduced on its watches in 1959. The latest iteration of the protective tech, dubbed “DS Concept Extreme Shock Resistance,” adds a trio of new features to the old system’s reinforced caseback and specialized seals.
The system now also features a reinforced sapphire crystal, a screwed-in movement holder, and a thin metal plate between the movement and dial that prevents the latter from slipping. According to Certina, these updates make the watches so shock-resistant that the device used to calculate their g-force resistance maxed out during testing.
