Update - Certina DS First Titanium Chronograph Caveman001  August 07, 2012 04:02PM

Admin Registered: July 2012 Posts: 4,589

The watch has been with me for just over 5 weeks, and I feel I've come to know it well. So an update is in order!

I'll do this a bit different than usual. I haven't shot any new photos, so I'm going to intersperse the report with the seller's photos, and I'll tack my original pmwf review on the end.. well, just because.

Now some of you will recall that the bracelet was 1 link shy of fitting me properly. Still is. Sure I was a bit disappointed with the seller in this regard, since I sent him a message asking him to confirm his statement that it would fit a 21.5 Cm (8.46 inch) wrist, and he assured me that it would. Well.. I suppose he is technically correct. It doesn't quite fit so tightly as to impede circulation to the wrist.. but it's close! I've been wearing it on nylon exclusively, and I admit that it works very well that way. But..






..it IS a very nice bracelet, and I'd love to be able to use it. Certina is supported in the USA by the Swatch Group, of course. So I sent a nice polite eMail to SGCST@swatchgroup.com, inquiring as to whether they would be so good as to help me acquire a couple of extra bracelet links. That was nearly three weeks ago, and I haven't received a reply. To say that I am under-whelmed by Swatch Group USA Customer Service would be an understatement!

But one area where there's been no disappointment whatsoever is..


..the going-rate accuracy. As far as I can tell it is still dead-nuts synched with Atomic Time after 5 weeks. Mayhap it's some fraction of a second off, but if so it's below the threshold which I can detect. WooHOO! I'm not sure the 251.262 movement can be considered "HEQ" in the conventional sense of the term, as it is not thermo-compensated. But if observed accuracy is your defining criteria, I'm pretty sure this movement's going to qualify!






Unlike some watches which I love despite themselves, this watch has no annoying quirks at all that I can find. It's a good size for everyday wear, comfortable, light as a feather, dead-on accurate, and so far the reliability and durability are top-notch.


So all in all I'm just as pleased as punch with it, and consider it a bargain at the just-under US $200 price.

Sláinte!

-Ricky

Certina DS Titanium Chronograph

OK, OK. Maybe "review" is pushing it, as I've been wearing the watch for a scant 24 hours. So let's call it "First Impressions", shall we?

But let's have a photo before we get to deep into it!

Click HERE for larger photo or HERE mega-sized photo

• Full Titanium case, PVD coated gold elements
• 38.5 mm Ø w/o crown X 43.5 mm, 11 mm thick, 19 mm lugs
• 100M Water-resistance rating
• Sapphire crystal
• Solid link Titanium bracelet (folded endlinks)
• Stamped titanium clasp with safety lock
• Weight with bracelet 91.1 grams
• Weight with nylon (as shown) 48.3 grams
  
  Movement:
• ETA Caliber 251.262, twenty-seven (27) jewels
• Size 13-1/4 ligne, ø 30 mm, 5.00 mm height
• 2-button chronograph
• Running seconds at 6H
• Hour counter at 9H (12-hour capacity)
• Central minutes counter
• Central seconds counter
• 1/10th sec. counter at 3H
• Quick-set hour ("Instant Time-Zone jump"
  Hands:
• hour 2.00 mm
• minute 1.50 mm
• co-axial minutes .80 mm
• co-axial seconds .30 mm
• sub-dial hands .20 mm
  Uses SR936SW cell (Energizer #394)
  
  
  Click HERE for larger photo or HERE mega-sized photo
  This watch holds a number of attractions for me, first being merely that it is a . I first encountered the marque on my 2008 visit to Switzerland..
  
  
  ..and was mightily impressed with them. A Certina has been on the Tom Swift Official WIShlist^© ever since so, while this could be seen as an Impulse Buy, 'twas an impulse buy that was a long time in the making. Considering the price, how could I resist?!
  
  
  Click HERE for larger photo or HERE mega-sized photo
  But this watch also represents a number of Firsts in me modest collection. First Certina, of course. But it's also my first chrono with central-minutes counter, a la 5100. Indeed, in researching the movement I kept running into references saying "The 251.262 is the quartz version of the Lemaia 5100..". Not sure I'd go that far, but certainly it's a POV that is understandable. And it must be said that, by Quartz Standards, the movement is a thing of beauty...
  
  
  
  
  Another first, for me, is the quick-set hour, or "Instant Time-Zone jump". This allows you to re-set the hour without disturbing the minutes and running seconds and, I got to say - Now I get it! I love this feature , and can't imagine why it's taken so long for me to add one to the collection.
  
  
  Click HERE for larger photo or HERE mega-sized photo
  Nice slim profile and, being titanium, you really can forget you're wearing it.
  
  I do have a couple of nitpicks, mind you. First, the co-axial chrono hands aren't aligned spot-on. The minutes counter hand "lags" by perhaps ⅛th second. IOW just shy of perfection. Still, it's such a miniscule error that I can forgive it.
  
  The rest of me heartburn concerns the buying/shipping experience. To be fair, the seller shipped lightning fast and provided excellent communication. But he also over-estimated the bracelet size by a full 4 mm. This would be no biggie for most of you, I know. But for me it means that the bracelet is 1 link shy of fitting me properly. And so the search begins. Being a model long out of production, and produced only in limited numbers, something tells me finding an extra link ain't gonna be easy. Cross your fingers for me, please. (And please see the seller's photos for pictures of the bracelet.)
  
  Then too, I was less than impressed with the packaging. The seller shipped in an unpadded envelope! Unusual placement of the watch, too. He fitted the bracelet around a piece of foam, applied a double layer of bubblewrap over it, and placed the watch sideways in the envelope. IOW any impact would have been taken on the crown. Still, it came through with no damage, so perhaps I'm being overly critical.
  
  My final beef is the Shipment Tracking, or to be precise the total lack thereof. I've received a goodly number of packages via , and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme nor reason to the tracking. Sometimes it's trackable via their website until it leaves , sometimes not. Sometimes the picks up the tracking as soon as it hits , sometimes not. Sometimes the bloody Tracking Number is altogether worthless, and it might as well have fallen into a black hole! As in this case. Honestly, I don't know whether to blame Swisspost or the USPS. Both, really! In any case I am not impressed! The watch spent ~ 3 hours in a black mailbox in 103° F (40° C) heat, and by the time I retrieved it and unpacked it, I estimate it's temperature was something on the order of 150° F (65° C)! Bright side is, that it survived this at all tells me it's one pretty darned tough watch.
  
  OK, let's have some pleasant surprises! Chief amongst these..
  
  
  Click HERE for larger photo or HERE mega-sized photo
  ..would be the lume. There may not be an over-abundance of it, but what's there is Top Notch! Not only does it pop great initially - to the point I had to go to a higher F-stop than normal to get rid of "lume glare" - but it's long-lasting, too. When I awoke at 0-dark-thirty this morning, it was easily legible after ~ 6-½ hours.
  
  So. All in all..
  
  
  Click HERE for larger photo or HERE mega-sized photo
  ..I am happier'n a slopped hog with it! Excellent build quality, great features, flawless function, and decent condition given the vintage. This may not probably won't be my last !
  
  One thing's certain, it wears Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr8!
  
  Thank you for your time and attention Dear Constant Reader.
  
  Sláinte!
  
  -Ricky
  

  ---

  Necessity is the mother of Caveman Watchmaking
  
  August 09, 2012 06:38PM
  
  OK, y'all might recall my lamenting the fact that the bracelet of my DS Titanium chrono is a tad too short. Well, bit of a story. I recently sold a couple of watches, one of them being a certain faux chrono (see HERE and HERE). I removed 2 links from the bracelet to fit the customer, and these were layin' on me workbench still. I know, I know! But in this case sloppy housekeeping worked to my advantage.
  
  I kept lookin' at these things, and something kept nagging at me. Like I was missing something. Couldn't figure it out. Then the lightbulb went on! While they're substantially different than the OEM Certina links..
  
  
  ..they're kinda sorta similar. Could it be?!
  
  Long story short - yeah it could be!
  
  
  Click HERE for larger photo or HERE for supersized photo
  
  
  Click HERE for larger photo or HERE for supersized photo
  
  
  Click HERE for larger photo or HERE for supersized photo
  I had to do a fair bit of Dremel^®ing, mind. Hey, $#^@ed Swatch USA ain't no help, so what's a Caveman to do?
  
  'course you can't see the Cavemanned links in those photos. OK, here ye go:
  
  
  Click HERE for larger photo or HERE for supersized photo
  What? Ye still don't see 'em?
  
  OK, a closer view!
  
  
  Click HERE for larger photo or HERE for supersized photo
  Yes, they're SS links not Ti. And, yeah, the Dremel^®ed surfaces are rough as a cob in those photos. However, I've since removed them and cleaned them up considerably. Also switched one link to the other side of the clasp, so that said clasp was better centered on the bottom of the wrist.
  
  Oh, and I've never posted me own photo of the caseback, have I? Well, that's easy to fix!
  
  
  Click HERE for larger photo or HERE for supersized photo
  I dunno. Even after I re-worked them..
  
  
  Click HERE for larger photo or HERE for supersized photo
  ..they're obviously still far from perfect. If I'm honest, I must admit that the sloppy fit of those two links did bother me quite a bit at first. Those links stood out to me like a sore thumb!
  
  However, such is my pleasure at being able to wear the watch on the OEM bracelet at all that I quickly forgot about it. I look at the bracelet now, and they sort of blend in, and I don't notice 'em at all. It helps that they're at least the proper 2-tone, and a close match in hue and surface finish at that. So you know what? Close enough for rock-n-roll! WooHOO!
  
  One things for sure..
  
  
  Click HERE for larger photo or HERE for supersized photo
  ..you'd never notice by feel, and the rig wears just Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr8!
  
  Thanks fer readin' y'all!
  
  Sláinte!
  
  -Ricky
  
  "A watch should be worth looking at even when you already know the time" - vintage Omega ad

Update - Certina DS First Titanium Chronograph	Caveman001	783	August 07, 2012 04:02PM
Impressive results. It should be the standard, not the exception. Quartz oscillates at such a high frequency, it should really not gain or lose any time in 5 weeks, in my opinion. What strikes me funny is that it has done this despite the fact that it has not been on your wrist much. You see, without being thermo-compensated, they still know the approximate temperature the watch will be running at when it is on one's wrist. This makes me believe that if you WORE it for 5 weeks, it would not run as well. --> Designed to be a safe queen. That, or you're wrong, and it IS thermo-compensated.	Smaug	38	August 07, 2012 08:31PM
Re: That, or you're wrong, and it IS thermo-compensated. Wrong? Moi?! Surely you jest! There is a thermo-compensated version of that module, but it carries a different caliber number (251.232). BTW are you aware that the addition of thermo-compensation carries a significant penalty in power consumption? 'tis so. It can range from 5% to more than 20% depending on the specific movement. Quote Smaug What strikes me funny is that it has done this despite the fact that it has not been on your wrist much. Ahhhh.. I've worn it quite a lot, actually. At least a week straight when I first got it, and several times a week since. Quote Smaug This makes me believe that if you WORE it for 5 weeks, it would not run as well. --> Designed to be a safe queen. Doesn't necessarily follow. Thermo-compensation is quite a subtle thing in operation. It's not intended for gross calibration of the movement, but to optimize in the last few percentage points. Seiko 8F3* movements will go ± 20 sec/year, for instance, and they're not thermo-compensated. Same deal for the Bulova Precisionist movements, though by some reports their accuracy specs are.. well, "optimistic" let's say.	Caveman001	57	August 08, 2012 08:12AM
looks are good and impression is she's well made - to last (n/t)	jackrobinson	44	August 08, 2012 12:08AM
+1; My only quirk is/are the Mercedes hands...  (n/t)	James T. Kirk©	40	August 08, 2012 01:50AM
You're clearly smitten, congrats! Have you considered a bracelet extender to get a better fit? (n/t)	JY	35	August 08, 2012 02:56AM
I have considered them. Thing is.. While I admit I've never actually tried one.. ..they just look wrong to me, somehow. Quote JY You're clearly smitten, congrats! "Smitten" is not too strong a term. mate!	Caveman001	35	August 08, 2012 05:32AM
I used one ages ago - worked great AND was unobtrusive. Cheap too.  (n/t)	JY	40	August 08, 2012 05:48AM
Unobtrusive = Good! In addition to looking funky, I was afraid they'd be less than ideal ergonomically. Perhaps I'll try on after all...	Caveman001	32	August 08, 2012 07:54AM