Certina SA
| Certina SA
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1888 |
| Seat | Le Locle , Switzerland |
| management | Adrian Bosshard |
| Branch | Watch manufacturer |
| Website | http://www.certina.com/ |
Certina SA is a Swiss watch manufacturer based in Le Locle . He built his own calibres until 1985 and is now part of the Swatch Group . The name Certina is derived from the Latin "certus", which means something like "safe, certain".
Companies
history
In 1888 the brothers Adolf and Alfred Kurth founded the Certina Kurth Frères factory in Grenchen for the production of watch movements and watch parts. A few years later, the production of complete watches began. In the year it was founded, the company had three technicians who worked in a workshop that was directly connected to the family home. After several expansions (1938: 250 employees, 1955: 500 employees), production reached its maximum in 1972 with 600,000 movements made per year and a workforce of 900.
One of the particularly hard-wearing models from Kurth Freres SA Grenchen was Certina Labora , a shockproof , waterproof and anti-magnetic wristwatch around 1944 .
In 1983 Certina joined the SMH (Swiss Society for Microelectronics and Watch Industry AG, today Swatch Group ) and became a sports watch brand within the group.
Brand name
The first watches were sold under the name "Grana". Grana was derived from "Granacus", which is the Latin name for Grenchen. Until 1938, watches with different brand names were manufactured and sold. Including the Certina brand. After that, it was decided to only maintain the Certina brand.
Certina was ranked first at jewelry and watch fairs and won both the International Diamonds Award and the Golden Rose .
DS - double security
In 1959, Certina engineers developed the DS principle. DS stands for double security. The idea was to build an extremely resistant watch case that would give the movement reliable protection even under extreme loads. The main thing is that the movement is kept decoupled from the case by a rubber ring that dampens strong impacts and that the crown is secured with a double seal (screw cap was only used later on the Certina Divern), which makes it difficult for moisture to penetrate. The crown axis is simply plugged together loosely, which means that it can move axially laterally during impacts if necessary. A second O-ring is located on the crown axis in addition to the O-ring in the crown. In addition to increasing the water resistance, this principle also has the advantage that impacts on the crown are not transmitted directly to the movement, but are absorbed beforehand.
Sponsorship
Since the post-war period and with the development of the DS construction, Certina has been a sponsor of athletes, sporting events and extreme expeditions.
From 2005 to 2015 Certina was a sponsor of the Swiss Formula 1 team, Sauber .
Trivia
Agent John Steed from the British television series With Umbrella, Charm and Bowler Hat wore a Certina wristwatch. In the "Flight Path" episode of the English SciFi series " UFO ", an astronaut carries a Certina DS-2 Super PH 500M on the moon.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Helmut Kahlert , Richard Mühe , Gisbert L. Brunner : Wristwatches: 100 years of development history. Callwey, Munich 1983; 5th edition, ibid. 1996, ISBN 3-7667-1241-1 , p. 7.
- ^ History. vintage Certinas, accessed November 9, 2014
- ^ Helmut Kahlert , Richard Mühe , Gisbert L. Brunner : Wristwatches: 100 years of development history. Callwey, Munich 1983; 5th edition, ibid. 1996, ISBN 3-7667-1241-1 , p. 46.
- ↑ History - 1983. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Certina, accessed November 9, 2014
- ^ Certina. watch-wiki, accessed November 9, 2014
