Certina is a well established brand with a long history. Their models cover all type of watches from divers to dress watches. One of the exciting offerings from Certina is chronograph line with their exciting specs.
Technical Specifications:
- Case: Stainless steel 316 L (PVD Coated for black model)
- Glass: Sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating
- Dial: Black Black Index Satin Hands and indexes with Super-LumiNova®
- Movement: ETA Swiss Made Chronograph movement 251.264 AA PRECIDRIVE Quartz
- Water resistance: Up to a pressure of 10 bar (100 m)
- Bracelet-Band: Stainless steel 316 L, Rubber with matching stitching
- Buckle: Stainless steel 316 L Butterfly clasp with 2 push-buttons, Signed buckle for rubber strap
Most exciting part of the DS-2 Chronograph is without a doubt its movement. A thermally compensated 1/100th seconds chrono on an affordable watch is an instant hit for any watch enthusiast.
Packaging:
Watch comes in a very well made high end packaging. You can feel the premium while un-boxing your new little handsome watch.
Casework & Finish:
The version I have is the PVD with red accents. Case has a mixture of brushed and polished surfaces with precise meeting lines.
Tachymeter bezel meets the case with a red ring which I think looks excellent. Crown also had a red detail. Overall case incorporates the sporty look with the help of balanced red accents. Case is 41 mm without crown and 51 mm lug to lug. I must say it is a little bit small for large wrists and 22mm lug width does not help small look of the watch. If you like classic 36-40mm size watches DS-2 would be a good fit for you. Still I would prefer 20mm lugs for a more balanced look. With 14 mm thickness watch sits very well on wrist and fits under cuff or sleeves easily.
Caseback has the Certina turtle which is significantly raised to look 3d. Caseback is all leveled so turtle does not dig in the wrist or cause discomfort.
Probably all watch enthusiast handled a Seiko Skx007 or 009 in some phase of their hobby so I compare the case thickness and size with it.
Both at 41mm but in reality Certina wears really small on the wrist compared to its size.
Again thickness are also very smilar with skx007 but Certina sits better on the wrist and feels more balanced.
Rubber strap is very soft and comfortable. Stitching is crisp and precise. Most importantly strap is not lint magnet so you can actually wear it. It comes with a signed buckle even though it is not very visible on PVD black. I do not have a lume shot but DS-2 has very good lume and shines brightly with BGW9 blue lume. It is uncommon surprisingly good for a chronograph watch. You can see the chrono action below it is quite unique.
Conclusion:
If you are in the market for a small sized chronograph with robust feature rich quartz movement this is the watch for you. It has a very handsome design and looks excellent in person. Chronograph function is really fun to watch. Negatives of the watch are: 22mm lugs are large for the design, 20mm would look better in my opinion. Also setting date is really weird you have make a full 24h turn. It is not easy even though it is a jumping hour hand.
