Certina

Certina is a Swiss watch manufacturer founded in 1888 by Adolf and Alfred Kurth. It was originally called Grana before adopting the name Certina in 1938. Notable innovations include DS (for Double Security) technology giving resistance against shocks and water pressure. Most of the models are named after DS, such as the current DS Podium, DS First or DS Action. Certina is currently a sponsor of the BMW Sauber F1 team.

Recent collection of Certina consist mostly of very sporty designs. Titanium, 316L stainless steel, sapphire glass, and ETA Swiss made movements are almost standard features.

Certina has a small non-DS collection named C-Sport. These watches are 100m water resistant in contrast to 200m for most of DS and DS+ collection.

Certina was founded in 1888 when Adolf and Alfred Kurth opened their first movement and supplies factory for the watchmaking industry. At the start the total sum of the Certina staff consisted of three employees working in a workshop that was connected to the family home. Certina did not begin producing complete watches and timepieces for a few years which they did alongside their work producing movements for other companies. In 1906 the Certina brand name was used for the very first time, with Adolf and Alfred choosing to call their watches "Grana", the short form of "Granacus", the Latin name for Grenchen. The first wrist-watches were produced by the company this year, although they were predominately ladies watches because men preferred pocket watches. For "exceptional performance" the founders received the Milan Fair's gold medal award, no mean feat for such a young company. In 1936 the Kurth brothers led the field with an innovative first in horology; Certina was the first company to produce the digital watch. It was driven by a spring movement and rotating disks bearing inscribed numbers were used to display the time. By 1938 the company had expanded and 250 employees celebrated the 50th anniversary of the company. Certina were already known as major pioneers.

Certina continued to expand and by 1955 the company had 500 employees working between the factory and offices and produced 1000 timepieces every day. Certina worked up a new business plan that expanded its operations and was at the time considered the most modern and best equipped watchmakers in the world. In 1959 Hans and Edwin Kurth set themselves the objective of creating a brand new niche marketplace based on quality through engineering and technical designs. From this objective Certina created the concept of suspending a watch movement inside a highly reinforced case, which they named DS for "Double Security". The DS line were the first watches to raise the water resistancy and shock protection down to 6m (previous watches were set at 2.2 meters), this placed Certina at the forefront of its trade. The Certina DS watch was taken up the Himalayas by a Swiss team who climbed the Dhaulagiri and the watch withstood all changes in pressure and altitude.

In 1971 Certina introduced the Biostar, the worlds first watch that displayed human biorhythms. By 1972 Certina employed 900 people and produced 600,000 watches every year. The company was ranked first in most major jewellery watch fairs, and they claimed both the "International Diamonds Awards" and the "Golden Rose" award. By this time Certina was producing 375,000 watch components per day and used 53,000 rubies. Certina went on to produce many world firsts including the unscratchable DS-DiaMaster in tungsten carbide and scoop many awards and have continued to lead the field of horology ever since. The 2000s saw many new partnerships with motoring companies including Colin McRae, Sete Gibernau, the Sauber Petronas Formula One team, which is nowadays known as BMW Sauber Formula One team.

External links

* [http://www.certina.com/ Official Certina homepage]
* [http://www.foundit4watches.co.uk/certina-watches-c107.html / info]