# Certina DS Action Review



## sshami

Around 2 months ago I bought this Certina DS Action. I would like to share my thoughts about it with you, my fellow enthusiasts. But first some background, if I may.

When I walked into the store selling this Certina I was not looking to buy any more watches. My watch hobby had started in August of the 2008 with me selling an old Swiss Army watch, a Swatch Irony and a Casio G Shock for a Seiko SKX007, quickly followed by a Seiko Orange Monster. By September 2008 I had been well and truly bitten by the bug. About a month later a local Jeweller had a sale of Certina watches. I had the chance to buy my first ETA 2824-2 movement watch, a lovely DS Podium Automatic.

Then my interest waned a bit and I settled into a pattern of enjoying my watches. I eventually found that the DS Podium was getting the most wrist time and the SKX007 the least. I was also tiring of continuously having to adjust the time on my watches whenever I swapped them around. The relative lack of accuracy in my main watch grew to be a bit of a pain in the posterior.

It was time for a Quartz and specifically a Chronograph. I also wanted a watch with a black leather band to match more of my clothing. I started looking at the price range I could afford, which was the A$500 mark and found the Tissot PRC200 (the one with the black face and yellow hands) to be extremely appealing. It is a watch with an unusual body and has a strong following on the Internet (bad mistake to follow other people's opinion as I later discovered).

While I was at the Jeweller looking at the Tissot and trying to make my mind up about the PRC200 I went for a wander down to the Jeweller where I had bought the Certina DS Podium from. Lo and behold the sale was still going. However they were down to only a few watches. One of them was the DS Action (260.7078.42.69). I hadn't noticed it the last time I was in the store because then I was dead set on Automatics. Anyhow I quite liked the look of it in the store. It had a nice body, with immaculate finishing, a very clean dial and a real sparkle to the watch.










The deal they had going on was really good and truth be told I totally fell in love with the watch so I put a deposit on it thinking that I could sell it on Ebay or to a friend in case it was a short term fling. Anyway in the meantime I went back to the other Jeweller and also put a deposit on the Tissot. Talk about not thinking straight.

This whole story gets weirder because further down the track a Longines comes into the picture as well but I'll stop here about other watches and speak only about the DS Action.

The DS Action had been an impulse decision based purely on instinct. I have always been a compulsive researcher on anything I buy so I decided to do some post decision research. I discovered that his Certina had the goods. It was a nice 40mm in diameter and had the DS+ shock protection ratiing, the highest shock rating that Certina watches had. Certina apparently pioneered shock protection in watches and had some fancy features that made the watch incredibly strong and rugged.. Another great feature was the anti reflective coating on the flat Saphire crystal and a supposedly very accurate Quartz movement with an End of Life indication feature that made the second hand skip every other second to indicate that the battery had to be changed. It also had PVD coating on its bezel to protect the black paint. All in all from a feature set perspective this was a serious watch.









Anyway I brought the watch home and after a few hours I had truly fallen in love with it. The anti reflective coating and the SS chaplets on the dial gave the watch real sparkle. Importantly my wife also fell in love with it and declared it to be better than the Seiko 007. In fact everyone I have shown it to seems to appreciate its style.

Firstly the watch is quite light but the housing seems very sturdy. The housing is brushed stainless steel and sports a thin bezel with PVD coating. The outer periphery of the bezel is the only polished stainless steel on the outside of the watch.

The chaplets are polished stainless steel with a strip of lume in the middle. The second hand is half red. It appears the red has been applied by dipping the needle in red ink.

The crown has the DS logo and feels reasonably solid to unscrew and pull out.

The rubber strap has the Certina script on the 6 O'clock side and the Certina logo on the 12 o'clock side. The rubber had to be cut to size and it feels very comfortable. The inside of the strap has a coarse pattern to stop it feeling clammy.

The brushed stainless steel on the clasp and indeed the case seems quite immune to scratches which shows that the watch is made of a really good grade of stainless steel.










The only thing on the watch that doesn't gel is the inside around the periphery of the dial is a strip of red between 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock that does not make much sense. It does not move and seems purely for decoration only. It is the only watch in the DS Action range that has this extra red strip. Even the same watch with a steel bracelet 260.7178.42.61 does not have it. Once you get over its lack of usefulness it actually makes the watch seem a bit more visually interesting.

The bezel moves very nicely, is unidirectional, and makes satisfying and precise clicks. It lines up with 12 o'clock very nicely.

The lume is not very strong compared to a Seiko but looks nice and precisely applied.

The watch is dead nuts accurate and over a measuring period of a week did not lose even one second. Adjusting the time can be tricky if you are concerned with the second hand aligning with the second markings. In common with many of the intermediate range of Swiss Quartz watches there seems to be free play in the movement and it needs a few (around 2 or 3) attempts before the second hand lines up. Once its aligned it pretty much stays aligned.

Overall I am very pleased with this watch. In the intervening time I have decided I will cancel my deposit on the Tissot and insteady sell my Seiko 007 and an old laptop and and buy a Longines Hydroconquest. When I get it I'll post a review on that watch. Then I'll probably sell the Orange Monster and DS Podium to fund a Steinhart Pilot. My present plan is to keep this Certina as a beater. In the meantime please let me know what you think.


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## sshami

Here are some more images.


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## sshami

An update. Now that I have my Longines and a Steinhart Nav B-II automatic, I am finding that I am not wearing this watch anymore. Why, because its not as nice as the Longines but far too nice to use as a beater. So in another reversal of direction I have put it on Ebay. My present thinking is a Seiko SKX009 (similar to US SKX175) Pepsi on a rubber strap. That would make a great beater I wouldn't be scared of getting scratches on.

Am I the most silly WIS or maybe the I in the acronym already accounts for it. I know my wife thinks I am taking this a bit too far.


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## asadtiger

its an aweso9me watch..I have one and its bullet-proof...if you dont have any troubles and dont really need a cheap beater, do keep this awesome beauty..you'll thank me in a while


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## mitadoc

Great watch,man.I have Certina for 2 weeks and I think it`s awesome for the money.
Here is mine:


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## lennix

This is another wonderful watch from Certina that one grows to appreciate more after wearing it for a while. It wears very well and compared to the DS First its much sleeker and lighter. I does have a rather rough sounding movement though and I feel this is the only aspect that lets down this watch. Nothing wrong the the precision though. I used mine as a daily wearer for about a year or so. I then gave it away and the new owner wore it for a couple of months before the movement gave up. He's now considering getting a replacement movement for it as he really likes the watch. I now use a DS Blue Ribbon as a daily wearer..


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