Certina DS Action Diver 38mm Review: An Underrated Swiss Dive Watch Under $850

The Certina DS Action Diver 38mm is a dive watch that has been largely off the radar of many U.S. watch enthusiasts until somewhat recently but is having a moment in our current era, in which sporty utility, striking colorways, value for money, and understated sizing reign supreme in the watch market. How much do you know about the DS Action Diver, including the meaning of “DS,” or about the not-so-famous but very historic Swiss watch brand that produced it? Read on, and you’ll be up to speed.

Origins Of Certina

Certina traces its roots to 1888, but it wasn’t called Certina back then. That year, a pair of Swiss brothers, Adolf and Alfred Kurth, set up a watchmaking workshop in an annex to their family home in the town of Grenchen (above), initially, to make movements and parts to sell  to other watch companies in the region. By 1906, however, they were making enough of their own complete timepieces that they introduced a brand name: Grana, which was a shortened version of the Latin word “Granatus,” referring to Grenchen.

The early Grana watches found success, but for several years the Kurth brothers continued to also make and supply movements to other companies; the name “Certina” — another Latin-derived word, from “certus,” for “sure” or “certain” — began appearing on the company’s timepieces in the 1930s. The name, which was also easier to pronounce than “Grana” in more languages, was registered in 1933 and eventually became the company’s sole name in 1949. 

Few Grana watches are remembered as milestones today, if the brand is remembered by most watch aficionados at all. However, the brand that would become Certina does claim a historical distinction, as the maker of the most coveted member of the series of World War II-era military watches today referred to as the Dirty Dozen. As I explore in much greater detail in this article, the Dirty Dozen were 12 watches, made by 12 watch manufacturers, that were built for the British military to a specific set of criteria and are regarded as the template for the modern-day field watch — which, it’s fair to say, also set the stage for purpose-built dive watches like the DS Action Diver later on.

Produced only from 1944 to 1945, these watches are exceedingly rare and collectible. Grana’s model is the rarest, and for collectors of vintage military timepieces, the Holy Grail of Holy Grails. No one’s sure how many were produced, but the number is almost certainly fewer than 5,000 and maybe as few as around 1,000. In April 2022, a Grana watch from the Dirty Dozen sold at auction for 12,000 GBP. Certina, during its Grana days, is also recognized for creating the first mechanical watch with an all-digital time display, which used a series of spring-driven numerical disks, in 1939. 

Doubling Down With "DS"

A decade after Certina became the brand name, the company introduced the concept that would define its modern identity and build the foundation for its dive watches. Called “DS” for “Double Security,” it referred to the innovative structure that Certina developed to make its cases more robust and water resistant: the watch’s movement is suspended inside a shock-absorbing rubber ring within the main case, which is also equipped with a proprietary sealant system for the screw-down crown. The rubber ring, similar to an O-gasket, with the movement inside, essentially floats behind the dial within a cushion of air, absorbing the kinetic energy of shocks and impacts. 

The DS design, for which Certina filed a patent in 1958, was the most important symbol of Certina’s new strategy entering the 1960s under the management of the next generation of the Kurth family, brothers Hans and Edwin Kurth, which was focused on watches built for sports and outdoor activities. Another was the adoption of its now-famous turtle logo (above); the turtle shell, according to the company, symbolizes “robustness and longevity” and has graced most every Certina timepiece since its debut in the 1960s. 

Certina was eager to put its DS watches to the test in challenging situations. In 1960, Certina DS watches accompanied an international team of mountaineers on the first successful ascent of Mt. Dhaulagiri in the Himalayas. In 1965, they were worn on the U.S. Navy’s Sealab II underwater marine expedition. An early model of one of Certina’s toughest purpose-built divers’ models, the DS-2 Super PH 500, was worn by scientists in the 1969 Tektite project, an underwater habitat and laboratory overseen by NASA.

In perhaps the most audacious example of a watch torture test, a Japanese skier named Yuichiro Miura wore a Certina D2 Chronolympic watch as he skied down Mount Everest from an altitude of 8,000 meters — after his team had successfully scaled the summit with Certina watches among their gear. In the 1970s, world-famous boxer Muhammad Ali (above, right) became one of the first recipients of Certina’s DiaStar timepiece, developed in partnership with Rado, a watch that pushed the boundaries of toughness even further with a scratch-proof tungsten carbide case.

Certina, along with Rado and several other Swiss watch brands, became part of the Swatch Group in 1983. The first DS dive watch from Certina, the ancestor of today’s Action Diver family, hit the market in 1960 and kicked off a tradition of robust, affordable divers that continues to form the cornerstone of the brand to this day. The diverse modern collection includes the DS PH200M (“PH” for “Pressure Hydrostatique”) and the DS Super PH500M, which measure around 43mm and are water-resistant to 200 and 500 meters, respectively; the 43mm DS Action GMT, with dual-time functionality; and the watch we train our focus on in this feature, the DS Action Diver 38mm.

Certina DS Action Diver 38 Case And Bracelet:

The Certina DS Action Diver 38mm is regarded as Certina’s entry-level dive watch despite its professional-grade 300-meter water resistance. This is primarily due to the relatively modest 38mm diameter of the 316L stainless steel case (as compared to the 43mm sizes of many other models in the DS diverr line), as well as to the model’s very newbie-friendly price point, under $800. The case is 12.2mm thick in profile and has a mostly brushed finish on its various surfaces and facets. 

This particular steel alloy, a mainstay of luxury watchmaking, is noted for its resistance to impacts and corrosion and for a high level of hypoallergenic properties due to its low proportion of nickel, which can trigger itching on the wrist. The case’s 120-click, coin-edged, unidirectional bezel has a graduated 60-minute dive scale and is made of anodized aluminum, a metal prized for its light weight and its hardness; the anodizing process provides an extra, durable layer of hardness that also allows for the use of multiple colors on the surface - including the dial-matching black, blue, and green of the current models. 

The screw-down crown is grooved for easy gripping and secured by two shoulder-like crown guards on either side. The caseback features the obligatory sea turtle engraving in its center. The case’s lugs are 19mm apart to accommodate the three-link steel bracelet, with the same high-end finishing as the case, which opens and closes with a double-folding, push-button clasp. If you’re wearing this watch to dive, you’ll appreciate the diver’s extension built into the buckle, which allows for easy lengthening and shortening of the bracelet and is a rare fixture in a dive watch at this sub-$1,000 price point. Also worth mentioning is the DS Action Diver’s ISO 6425 certification, an important distinction for serious divers making a decision on a watch. 

Certina DS Action Diver 38 Dial

The dial of the Certina DS Action Diver 38mm, like those of its big brothers within the sprawling DS Action Diver collection, features an assortment of classical and no doubt familiar dive-watch elements. Baton-shaped hands reveal the time on the dial’s geometric hour indexes — an inverted triangle at 12 o’clock, rectangles at the cardinal positions of 3, 6, and 9 o’clock, and large dots at the remaining hour markers. Easy discerning of the hour and minute is ensured by Certina’s use of a blunt arrow for the hour hand and a rectangular sword for the minute hand, along with a center-mounted seconds hand highlighted with a luminous-filled circle near the tip. 

The hands and markers are all treated with Super-LumiNova BG W9, a phosphorescent compound that glows a bright blue in the dark (many watches use a green-glowing SLN instead), ensuring legibility in the dark or even in this watch’s intended environment, the depths of the ocean. Covering the dial is a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, a now-common element of watches at a certain level of build quality but adopted early by Certina as a core component of its DS technology.

Powermatic 80 Movement:

Also adding to the appealing value proposition of the Certina DS Action Diver 38mm is its movement, the Powermatic 80.611, which is derived from the Powermatic 80 base that is exclusive to Certina’s parent company. By way of background: in addition to its stable of watch brands, the Swatch Group also owns ETA, one of the watch industry’s largest and most prolific suppliers of quartz and mechanical movements. ETA makes movements for many brands within the Group (and sells them to many more brands outside it) but around 2011, the Swatch Group decided the time had come to develop a more elite style of automatic caliber that would add value to the watches produced by its “midrange” tier of luxury watchmaking companies, which includes Longines, Hamilton, Rado, Mido, Tissot, and, of course, Certina.

The caliber that emerged from this initiative was the Powermatic 80 (above), which debuted in a Tissot model and was very shortly thereafter modified and adapted for use by other companies. Based on the workhorse ETA 2824, whose power reserve is a pedestrian 38 hours, the Powermatic 80 derives its numerical name from its uncommonly lengthy 80-hour power reserve, a "weekend-proof" range far longer than that offered by comparable movements in comparably priced watches. To achieve this feat, ETA’s engineers reduced the base caliber’s consumption of energy by reducing the frequency of its oscillations from 4 Hz (28,800) to 3 Hz (21,600 vph), and added a friction-reducing synthetic material to the escapement. They also added a Nivachron hairspring for enhanced performance and shrunk the diameter of the barrel arbor’s core to allow for a stretched mainspring and thus a longer running autonomy.

Final Thoughts On The Certina DS Action Diver 38 

The Certina DS Action Diver 38mm hits a very narrow target within the overall wristwatch universe: an ISO-certified, professional-grade Swiss-made divers’ watch with a top-notch automatic movement for under $1,000 (the fact that it’s actually under $800 shrinks the target even more). In this price segment, perhaps only Japan’s Seiko and Citizen come close in offering divers with automatic movements; Certina’s bigger, better known siblings in the Swatch Group are in the ballpark but not quite on the same base: a Tissot Seastar with a Powermatic movement retails for $850, though it’s much bigger, at 43mm, and Mido’s basic Ocean Star Captain, a 42mm Powermatic-equipped watch with 200-meter water resistance, comes in at $980 on a rubber strap. And if the size, design, and technical specs of the DS Action Diver 38 are just about right but you’re willing to splurge for just a bit more lightweight comfort on the wrist, Certina offers a model in titanium for an even $1,000. 

SPECS:

Price: $835, Case Size: 38mm, Thickness: 12.2mm, Lug to Lug: 44.9mm, Lug Width: 19mm, Crystal: Sapphire, Water Resistance: 200 meters, Movement: Automatic Powermatic 80.611