Certina DS Action Diver 40.5mm Powermatic 80 Titanium Review

Today we will be taking a look at the third watch sent to us by Swiss watch manufacture Certina. We had previously looked at the DS SUPER PH1000M STC and DS Action GMT Powermatic 80 and were pleasantly surprised by how well done these dive watches were for their price points. The DS Super PH1000M STC uses more of a vintage cushion shaped case and offers a staggering 1,000 meters of water resistance while the DS Action GMT is housed in a more traditional dive watch case but adds the GMT complication. Today the watch that we're going to be reviewing is a more classic diver from Certina that is crafted out of my favorite case metal titanium.



Before we get into that watch, let's first go over the history of Certina. Certina was founded by brothers Adolf and Alfred Kurth in Grenchen, Switzerland in 1888. Early movements created by the brothers carried the signature of Kurth Freres. By 1906 complete timepieces were now being manufactured and the name of the company was changed to "Granacus" the Latin for Grenchen. It wasn't until 1928 when the name "Certina", meaning "assured" or "certain" in Latin, was registered. Finally in 1949 Certina became the sole name used by the watch manufacture for all of their products. By the time Certina was being used, the company was moderately sized and had hundreds of employees.

Although Certina was a very successful movement and complete timepiece manufacture, they hadn't really broken into the mainstream much. This changed in 1959 with the introduction of the DS Concept. DS stood for "Double Security" of the watch from shocks as well as water ingress. The DS Concept suspended the entire movement within an elastic shock-absorbing ring and had a re-enforced case back, thicker crystal and special seals. These advancements ushered in a new standard for watchmaking in terms of durability and the public took notice.



The 1960s put the newly developed DS system to the test at both extremes of the planet. In 1960 a DS watch was part of a Swiss expedition that scaled Dhaulagiri, one of the tallest mountains in the world. A few years later in 1965 another DS watch was onboard the U.S. Navy's Sealab II project where the watch performed flawlessly when subjected to immense underwater pressures.

Besides these two extremely uses, Certina also sponsored many motorsports teams and became synonymous with racing in the 1970s. Celebrities, including the all time great boxer Muhammad Ali, were also often seen wearing Certina DS watches. The 1970s and 80s brought upon the upheaval of the Swiss watch industry when cheap Japanese quartz movements started to dominate the market. To navigate these troubling times, Certina joined the General Watch Co (GWC) which would later become part of the Swatch Group. Being aligned with such a large group allowed Certina to now focus more on developing top tier sports watches without having to worry about the finances of the brand.



Initial Thoughts

Now that we've gone over the history of Certina, we can now focus on the watch that we'll be reviewing today, the DS Action Diver 40.5mm Powermatic 80 in titanium. When the watch arrived, the first thing I noticed about it was its lightness. The case and bracelet of the DS Action Diver are completely crafted out of titanium and when sized a little small for my 7.25 inch wrist the watch weighs in at just 111 grams on the bracelet. I'm very used to titanium watches and would have expected the watch to not be heavy, but it's still impressive to come in just 11 grams over 100 grams while on a metal bracelet.

The second thing I noticed about the watch was how well the blue ceramic bezel matched the blue dial. Normally I'm not a huge fan of blue on watches, but I really liked the deep hue used on the DS Action Diver. The bezel and dial just match perfectly and make the overall watch look very cohesive. The white markers used on the bezel and dial also contrast extremely well with the dark blue backgrounds of each as well, which I'd imagine make the watch rather easy to decipher quickly underwater or in other low light situations.



The last thing I noticed about the DS Action Diver during my initial time with the watch was the micro adjustment system built into the bracelet. Admittedly I'm not the biggest fan of bracelets on watches which came about wearing un-adjustable watch bracelets decades ago during the scorching summers here in Austin. Basically your wrist would swell and contract all day and watches would never fit right. Certina gets around those issues by offering an easily adjustable clasp on the bracelet of the DS Action Diver. There are two additional buttons on the clasp that allow the clasp to slide out and then ratchet back to pre-set lengths. Not only does this system allow a wide range of extensions to the clasp, but it also might be the fastest and easiest to use micro-adjustment system that I have come across.



Technical Specifications

Having gone over my initial impression of the Certina DS Action Diver, now let's go over the technical specifications of the watch. The DS Action Diver is crafted out of titanium and has a case diameter of 40.5 mm and a lug to lug length of 48 mm. At its thickest point the DS Action Diver is 14 mm tall and weighs in at 111 grams on our scale when sized a bit small for my 7.25 inch wrist.



The DS Action Diver uses a slightly raised flat sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating. Underneath the crystal clear crystal is the Deep Blue dial. Certina uses polished applied hour markers on the dial that are coated with Super-Luminova. In regular lighting these markers appear white but glow a brilliant blue in low light situations. Round markers are used at 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 11 with a large triangle at 12 and smaller triangles at 6 and 9. 3 o'clock has a much smaller marker with the majority of that time being taken up by a white backed date window.

Around the outside of the dial there is a small minutes scale printed in white with all minutes being designated by small hash marks and 60 being represented by an Arabic numeral. At 12 o'clock you have the Certina logo and branded and at 6 are printed "Titanium", "Powermatic 80", "Divers Watch 300m" and "Swiss Made". There are three centrally mounted polished hands on the DS Action Diver being the hour, minute and seconds hands. Certina uses a large arrow shaped hour hand and pencil shaped minute hand both covered in matching Super-Luminova to the hour markers. The running seconds hand has a round lumed ball on it as well.



Moving on from the dial is the 120 click uni-directional bezel with an inlayed blue ceramic insert. The bezel is rather shiny and has engraved white markers. Each 10 minute increment is done with an Arabic numeral and each five minute increment between is done with a large hash mark. The first 15 minutes of the bezel also have smaller hash marks for each minute. 60 is replaced with a large triangle that has a lumed point inside of it, which is the only lumed element on the bezel. The bezel doesn't require too much force to turn and operates with a nice click and feel with not much back play detected. The bezel is also extremely scalloped and should be able to be operated with dive gloves on.

The case of the DS Action diver is a mix of finishes with the top of the case being brushed and the sides of the case done in high polish. The mixture of finishes give the watch a very attractive look, but I find the polished sides attract a lot of fingerprints and maybe for a diver only the chamfers should have been polished. Looking at the profile of the watch you can see a very gentle curve to the watch and lugs that help it follow the shape of your wrist.



On the right hand side of the watch is a polished screw-down crown flanked by two large crown protectors. The top of the deeply grooved crown has the DS logo engraved on it. Un-screwing the crown allows you to manually wind the automatic movement in the resting position. Pulling the crown out to position one lets you set the date and pulling it all the way out sets the time. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minutes hand and screwing the crown back in is simple and doesn't require much care to get it to catch. The screw down crown also helps with the 300 meters of water resistance.

Flipping the watch over shows off the solid titanium screw down case back complete with an engraving of a sea turtle. All the other important information about the watch are also engraved on the case back. Beating underneath the case back is the in-group ETA Powermatic 80.611 Swiss Made automatic movement. The movement beats away at 21,600 vph (3Hz) and has a power reserve of 80 hours. On our timegrapher the Powermatic 80 had an accuracy of -1 second per day when averaged out of several positions. We have found the Powermatic 80 to be a very accurate movement and it once again shows just that here.



The Certina DS Action Diver comes on a full titanium bracelet that has a three row construction, similar to the look of a lot of popular sports watches. The lug width is 20 mm and the bracelet tapers down to 18 mm at the deployant clasp. The links are fully brushed with no polished areas and the removable links feature cotter pins, which aren't my favorite means of sizing a bracelet since decent force from a hammer is needed to get the pins in and out. I still prefer using screws to remove bracelet pins since less force is required.

The bracelet is attached to the lugs using a quick release system that uses pushers on each end of the bracelet. Having a lug width of 20 mm means the DS Action Diver can accept unlimited amounts of aftermarket straps. The clasp on the watch is rather long and is also brushed in finish and has Certina branding on it. Two buttons are required to be pushed to open the clasp and an additional set of buttons are used for the clasps micro-adjustments. Pushing these two buttons in allows you to slide the clasp out for up to 18.3 mm of additional expansion. The smallest expansion is 2.5 mm and the clasp clicks back into preset positions after it has been pulled out. The system is extremely nice and allows more than enough adjustment for wrist swelling as well as enough to fit over some wetsuits.



On The Wrist

During my time with the Certina DS Action Diver I tried to wear it out as much as possible to get a feel for the watch in the real world. The 48 mm lug to lug length is a little small for my personally preference, but with the watch being on a bracelet instead of a strap it did wear a little bigger. The watch managed to stay centered on my wrist the entire time and the 111 grams of weight made the watch pretty much disappear while wearing it. I feel if the watch was crafted out of stainless steel and was closer to 140 grams, I would have grown tired of it being on my wrist after extended wear times.

I actually sized the watch to be a little smaller than I would typically wear so that my wife could also wear the watch and give me here opinions on it. Having done this, I ended up having the micro-adjustments on the clasp pulled out a few clicks to fit my wrist. Also it's been very hot and humid here in Austin, so I did have to use the micro-adjustments a few times when being out in near 100 degree temperatures and then coming into cool air conditioned spaces. It has to be said that having such a wide range of extension available on a bracelet made it very easy to be worn by both my wife and myself, this is a no go with our other bracelet watches.



Being a diver I expected the DS Action Diver to do well with my legibility test, which is basically just seeing how hard it is to tell the time at a glance while driving. Not surprisingly the watch did exceptionally well and didn't take much time at all to decipher the time at a glance. The stark white markers and hands on the deep blue dial created nice contrast that made quick time telling a breeze. The amount of lume on the hour markers and large hands also made telling the time in low light a non-issue as well.

The deep blues of the Certina DS Action Diver also went well with my pretty much every day outfits of a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. The watch did great during routine daily errands and was a good wrist companion when going out to dinner and drinks. We live in an area with tons of stainless steel sports watches, so the DS Action Diver did get a lot of quick looks from those around. I'm guessing most of those were just trying to see which hyped up Rolex sports model the watch was… For the most part though, the DS Action Diver flies under the radar nicely. If you prefer your watches to be more of a wallflower, the DS Action Diver will fit that bill nicely. I did show the watch to a few of my friends while out and they all commented how light the watch was and also how nice the blue dial and bezel looked. They were also all blown away by how much the DS Action Diver retailed for.



Value and Position in the Market

Speaking of price, the Certina DS Action Diver 40.5mm Powermatic 80 in titanium retails for $940. For that price you are getting a very capable dive watch with strong brand heritage, especially in the dive space. The watch is also fully crafted out of titanium and comes on a matching titanium bracelet. Finally the DS Action Diver is powered by the latest evolution of ETAs automatic caliber now with a very impressive 80 hours of power reserve which also happens to be very accurate. For under $1,000 this sounds like a great value, but we should now compare the DS Action Diver to other watches with similar specifications and features and see how good of a value the watch really is.



First up is the Pelagos from Tudor that has a 42 mm case crafted out of titanium. The Pelagos also has a blue dial and bezel and has a slightly better water resistance at 500 meters. The Pelagos is powered by a manufacture automatic movement with 70 hour of power reserve. The Pelagos also shares the classic dive watch look with the DS Action Diver. The Tudor Pelagos is much more expensive than the DS Action Diver at $5,325 though.

Next up we have the C60 Trident Lumiere from Christopher Ward with has a 41 mm case made out of titanium. The Trident Lumiere also has a blue dial and a gradient blue dial with a matching 300 meters of water resistance. The Trident Lumiere is powered by an off the shelf Sellita SW300-1 movement with only 56 hours of power reserve. The Trident Lumiere is also a good deal more expensive than the DS Action Diver at $2,390.



Moving on is the Ocean Star 200C Titanium from Mido which has a 42.5 mm case crafted out of titanium. The MIDO also has a classic dive watch design and runs on a similar ETA movement with 80 hours of power reserve. The Ocean Star 200C only has 200 meters of water resistance compared to the 300 meters on the Certina. The Ocean Star 200C is also a bit more expensive than the DS Action Diver at $1,310.

Finally we have the Master from Squale which has a 42 mm case crafted out of titanium. The Master has a more vintage feel to it with an aged lume sandwich dial and crown at 4 o'clock. The master does offer an incredible 1,200 meters of water resistance and runs off of a Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement with only 38 hour of power reserve. The Squale Master is more than double the price of the DS Action Diver at $2,500.



Looking at these four watches you can see that the Certina DS Action Diver offers great value for its asking price. The DS Action Diver is either better than or mostly equal to the specifications of the other watches and is by far the least expensive. This just shows that the Certina DS Action Diver would make a great daily watch that can pretty much take any abuse that might comes its way and not cost you an arm and a leg.



Closing Thoughts

So in the end is the Certina DS Action Diver for me? I typically prefer my personal watches to be a bit more quirky and the DS Action Diver is a very by the books dive watch when talking about design. Also I'm just not a huge fan of bracelets on a watch, so if the watch had come with an optional rubber strap I would have been a bigger fan. Also the lug to lug length is just a tiny bit too small for my personal tastes, where I tend to think 50 mm is the smallest and 52 mm is my sweet spot. I do love the use of titanium on the watch which really keeps the weight down and makes the watch mostly disappear on the wrist. Even the blue used on the dial and bezel didn't bother me too much, since they are a very deep blue. I'm very set in my ways and there are just too many small things that don't align the DS Action Diver to my collecting preferences that keep the watch for being for me.



So on the other hand, would I recommend the DS Action Diver to somebody looking for a more traditional sports or dive watch? I really would in a heartbeat. The DS Action Diver offers an exceptional value for what you get and is muted enough to be a great daily wearer. The x-factor here is the titanium construction which gives the watch a unique grey hue and also reduces the weight by at least 30 percent of what it would weigh if it was done in stainless steel. The 300 meters of water resistance means the watch can go places no normal human would be able to survive either. With 80 hours of power reserve the DS Action Diver can also sit for days unworn and then be picked up and still be running.

For a third time now a Certina watch has really impressed me with how well it was built and what it offered for a relatively low price. Compared to the other two Certina divers that we have reviewed, the DS Action Diver is by far the most traditional dive watch. Personally I prefer the more out there design of the DS Super PH1000M STC, but I feel the majority of people would prefer the DS Action Diver. There really isn't anything I can ding the DS Action Diver for either, it does a very good job of being a straight forward dive watch.



I'd really like to thank Certina for sending us this DS Action Diver 40.5mm Powermatic 80 to review. When I saw the titanium construction of the watch, I knew I had to have one in to review. I was really impressed by the watch in the metal and it definitely met my expectations. I can't wait to see what Certina is working on for the rest of 2025 and hopefully we can get some future releases from them in for review.

For more information about the DS Action Diver 40.5mm Powermatic 80 please visit : Certina



Technical Specifications

Reference Number: C048.407.44.041.00

Retail Price: $940

Case Size: 40.5 mm

Lug to Lug: 48 mm

Thickness: 14 mm

Weight: 111 grams

Case Material: Titanium

Bezel: Ceramic

Strap: Titanium with a Deployant Clasp (Featuring Micro-Adjustments)

Movement: Swiss Made ETA Powermatic 80.611 Automatic Movement

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds and Date

Power Reserve: 80 Hours

Water Resistance: 300 Meters