Certina DS Action GMT Powermatic 80 C032.929.11.051.00 Review

Certina has a long and rich history in the world of watch making dating all the way back to 1888 when Adolf and Alfred Kurth founded their brand in the Swiss town for Grenchen. Although operational the entire time and also very successful, Certina wasn’t used for the name of the company until the 1930s, formally being registered in 1939. Certina was picked for the brand’s name over the previously used “Grana” since it was easy to pronounce in all languages and also meant “Sure” in Latin.

The first real milestone for Certina that influences the Certina watches of today was in 1959 when Certina debuted the DS Concept. The DS Concept was an extremely shock resistant watch that also boasted 200 meters of water resistance, which was a huge accomplishment for the time.



Around this time recreational diving had just taken off and there was a huge rush to produce not only water resistant watches, but true diving watches. Most notably Blancpain released their Fifty Fathoms and Rolex released their Submariner in the mid 1950’s. Having developed such a strong and water resistant watch, Certina adopted the turtle shell as an image to be displayed on their watches to reflect these traits.

Since then Certina has achieved some amazing feats with their watches such as their successful summiting trip in the Himalayas in 1960 to their voyage to the bottom of the ocean onboard Sealab II in 1965. In 1969 Certina DS-2 Super PH500M watches also accompanied four scientists as they lived underwater for two months while being observed by NASA.



Continuing Certina’s history with mountains and the deep, Certina also accompanied a Japanese skier as he skied down the top of Mount Everest wearing a DS-2 Chronolympic in 1970. In 2004, Certina also produced an automatic mechanical watch that had the incredible depth rating of 1,000 meters of watch resistance.

Needless to say, Certina is no slouch when it comes to sports watches that over perform what most watch collectors will ever put their timepieces through. My knowledge of Certina is pretty decent, but I had never handled yet alone worn one before. When the new DS Action GMT Powermatic 80 was released, I reached out to Certina to see if they would send me one to check out. Luckily they agreed and within a few days one showed up at our doorstep.



The DS Action GMT Powermatic 80 takes all of the heritage from the famed DS models in Certina’s history and adds the modern in-group Powermatic 80 automatic movement. Certina is now part of the Swatch group and has access to all of their technology, including the stellar ETA Powermatic 80 movement. This movement boasts an 80 hour power reserve and for this DS Action adds a flyer GMT function.



If you’ve ever handled a stainless steel sports watch like a Rolex Submariner, than you’ll kind of get the general feel of the DS Action GMT. The DS Action GMT has a very solid and weighty feel to it. The watch weighs 195 grams with all of its bracelet links and 177 grams with a few links removed to fit my 7.25 inch wrist. This isn’t too surprising since this is a full 316L stainless steel 41 mm watch on a stainless steel bracelet. The weight of the watch feels well balanced on the wrist though, with neither the watch feeling overly top heavy nor the bracelet feeling too hefty. During my time wearing the DS Action GMT it sat well on my wrist and didn’t seem to favor one side or the other.



Personally I tend to prefer a watch that is over 50 mm lug to lug, but watches on bracelets tend to be OK if slightly smaller. The DS Action GMT measures in at 49.5 mm lug to lug and fit my wrist well. The 14.1 mm thickness probably helped the watch feel a little bigger on my wrist as well. Would an extra millimeter have been a little better for my wrist, probably, but once again I’m in the not so popular club of liking larger watches.

While we’re talking about the bracelet, I have to mention the double guard on the clasp. I can’t really think of a watch I’ve been around recently that had this kind of security on the bracelet. To open the bracelet, you need to first flip over the security clasp and then push on both sides of the deployant to release the clasp. This system is extremely nice and I really can’t of a situation where you could disengage the clasp by mistake.



Another very interesting featured included in the bracelet of the DS Action GMT is Certina’s quick release system. I’m typically not a huge fan of quick release straps, since I just don’t trust them. To me walking around with a four, five or six figure watch with anything label as quick release is a recipe for disaster. The one system I felt super comfortable with is the one click system used by Hublot, the force to click or unclick the strap is substantial, really reducing the risk of removing the strap by mistake. On the DS Action GMT, Certina uses a quick release using two pins on each end of the bracelet. To remove the bracelet means that you have to both on both ends of the link to give the pins enough room to clear the case and come off. Extra security while still being easy to use is always a plus in my book, looks like Certina employed this on both their clasp and quick release system.

While the DS Action GMT has diver chops, it’s not really marketed as a true diver. I just feel like the bracelet could have had a divers extension, but its omission is understandable. With the DS Action GMT having a standard lug width of 20 mm, it’s more than easy enough to find a rubber strap or NATO to put the watch on if you want to go diving with it.



I’m the first to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of bracelets on watches, much rather preferring a strap. One thing that always bothered me about bracelets, especially since we’re in Texas, is that there is no way to resize the watch while you’re wearing it. Recently a lot of brands have started adding micro adjustments to bracelets to dial in a perfect fit with on the fly sizing. The first watch I’ve seen with this is the Christopher Ward C60 Trident Pro we recently reviewed. I even took this watch on a trip to a resort over Easter and loved how easy it was to adjust the watch for being in the heat and water to being in an air-conditioned space.

Sadly the DS Action GMT does not have the option of doing on the fly micro-adjustments, but hey my wife’s Rolex Yacht-Master 16622 doesn’t either and it costs more than ten times more than the DS Action GMT. The DS Action GMT does have three adjustments on the clasp, but you will need a spring bar tool to do this adjustment. For bracelets, I’m used to adding and removing links with a screw driver, the DS Action GMT was the first watch I had to size that uses friction / pressure pins. Basically one end of the pin is slightly bulged and the links can only inserted and removed in one direction. Luckily I had the correct tool to do this change, so it wasn’t much of a process for me.



Probably the stand out feature of the DS Action GMT is its black and green sapphire 24 hour bezel. The GMT hand also mirrors the green found in the bezel, which really adds a nice bit of color to the rather boring aesthetics typically found in stainless steel sports / divers watches. From 6 to 18, the bezel is the brilliant green and from 18 to 6, the bezel is a deep black. In a nice little nod to Certina, the green is the same hue as the turtle shell in their logo.

Since the DS Action GMT is not marketed as a divers watch, the bezel is bi-directional for easy setting of your second time zone. The action is nice on the bezel and you can perfectly line up the indices, nothing is misaligned here. The force needed to turn the bezel is very light, unlike a divers watch, there is no real life or death type situation if the bezel gets bumped hard enough and moves one click.



Back to the diving chops and general history of the DS series in the water, the DS Action GMT offers a very healthy 200 meters of water resistance. Like a true diver, the DS Action GMT also comes equipped with a screw-down crown, with the crown having the DS logo on it. There are also crown guards to protect the crown from any hazards. While we didn’t take the watch underwater, I do feel that the DS Action GMT would perform just as well as most dedicated divers on recreational dives and dips into the pool.

The dial of the DS Action GMT is handsome and pretty standard issue for sports / divers watches. The dial is a deep black with eight round indices and three stick indices. The 3 o’clock index has been replaced by the date window, which is done in white. The white background of the date actually goes well with the index color, I feel having a black background would have made the index disappear. The Certina logo and text can be found at 12 o’clock with “DS ACTION POWERMATIC 80 GMT” text found at 6 o’clock. Minute hash mark can also be found all the way around the dial, just adding that much more accuracy when it comes to reading the time.



Certina uses an arrow hour hand and baton minutes hand on the DS Action GMT. The seconds hand has a circled lume point, which is important to tell if the watch is running in dark situations, especially during a dive. The green GMT hand also has a lumed arrow at its tip. The watch overall emits a nice blue glow from the Super-LumiNova applied to the hours, minutes, seconds and GMT hands, as well as the indices and center plot on the bezel.

Flipping the watch over shows off the ETA Powermatic 80 automatic movement, complete with a branded Certina winding rotor. While not technically an in-house movement, the Powermatic 80 does come from ETA which is a sister company of Certina under the Swatch Group umbrella. The movement is Swiss made and boasts a power reserve of 80 hours. The Powermatic 80 is the spiritual successor to the wildly popular ETA 2824-2 movement, which while extremely reliable had some shortcomings like the 38 hour power reserve. ETA was also able to slow down the movement to 21,600 vph from the old 28,800 vph without losing accuracy and also gaining a longer power reserve. On our timegrapher the DS Action GMT ran an incredible 0 to +1 seconds per day in accuracy, which is among the best we’ve tested!



Certina also went the extra mile when it comes to the GMT function of the DS Action GMT. At the price point of around $1,200 (CHF 1,070), it would have been easy for Certina to just do a standard caller GMT where the 24-hour GMT hand is adjusted independently… but they went ahead and added a flyer (or true) GMT function to the watch. This allows frequent travelers the ability to adjust only the local 12 hour hand in one hour increments. The GMT hand then moves at half the speed, allowing you to keep a constant home time. This is very beneficial to those who travel across timezones often, allowing super fast setting of the new local time, while leaving the home time set.

The DS Action GMT accompanied me through a week’s worth of errands and going out. The first thing that always caught my eye when on the wrist was the stunning green and black color scheme of the bezel and dial. The green Certina uses certainly pops a lot more than the green Rolex uses on some of their sports models for example. Just playing with the bi-directional bezel is also a true treat and acts as an on wrist fidget spinner.



Telling the time is a breeze with the super high contrast of the black dial and white hands and indices, requiring no more than a quick glance. For the most part the watch never ran out of power over the week, but if it had, setting the watch is super rewarding with the beefy and sure crown. I didn’t really have the need to use the GMT function, but went ahead and set it to Swiss time, since I typically have numerous emails per day with people in Switzerland.

The heft of the watch didn’t bother me too much since it’s so well balanced on the wrist. Although I’m used to watches made of lightweight titanium, carbon or ceramic, I’m also used to much larger watches, so the 177 grams sized weight wasn’t too far off from some of my 44 mm plus watches utilizing lighter materials. I do have to say I really appreciate the brushed appearance of the DS Action GMT as well. Typically I’m not the biggest fan of polished watches.

I feel that if the watch just had a solid black bezel, the watch wouldn’t have received too much attention. In the area we live in, sports model Rolex watches are a dime a dozen, there is a reason they are nicknamed a Texas Timex. People would have just assumed I was wearing a Submariner or a GMT if it wasn’t for the crazy green bezel. The watch did bring on a few questions about what I was wearing and received a lot of positive comments.



So how do I feel about the Certina DS Action GMT Powermatic 80 after spending some real time with it?

For the price of right around $1,200 there really aren’t many options that offer nearly as much heritage and bells and whistles that the DS Action GMT offers. At this price point, the DS Action GMT might offer the best bracelet and movement. The bracelet is substantial while keeping the large watch in place and being super comfortable at the same time. The DS Action GMT also offers a pseudo in-house movement with almost perfect accuracy and a very useful 80 hours of power reserve. The added in flyer GMT function is really the cherry on top as well.

There is no way around it, the DS Action GMT is just a handsome watch as well. The sports / diver design of the watch is classic and has been around since the 1950s. Everyone is used to this design and improving upon it is tough, but I feel Certina has achieved that with the inclusion of the bright green colored bezel and GMT hand. The full brushed look also makes this watch look the business of a tool watch and not some over polished wannabe.

Even though my first three watches were all on bracelets, over the decades I’ve learned to not really prefer a bracelet on a watch. I’m actually forcing myself to use the bracelet on my IWC GST Aquatimer 2000 titanium to get used to wearing a bracelet again. I even got an IWC rubber strap and buckle for it before I even tried to wear it with a bracelet. So at this current point in my collecting journey the DS Action GMT would not be for me but…



I would 100% recommend it for anyone who likes a bracelet on a sports watch (pretty much everyone) and doesn’t want to spend tons more on something like a Rolex Submariner / GMT-Master II or an Omega Seamaster. Honestly, the DS Action GMT offers pretty much everything the Rolex or Omega offerings do at a crazy value. Normally at this price you could argue the use of an off the self movement or lack of build quality would justify paying more for the other brands, but that’s just not the case here.

We’ve had a blast with the DS Action GMT Powermatic 80 and it’s been a really nice introduction to Certina for us.

We would really thank Certina for sending us the DS Action GMT for review and really can’t wait to see what they send us next.

If you’d like to learn more about Certina and the DS Action GMT Powermatic 80 you can from their site: Certina

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: C032.929.11.051.00

Retail Price: 1,070 CHF (~ $1,170)

Case Size: 41 mm

Lug to Lug: 49.5 mm

Thickness: 14.1 mm

Weight: 195 grams

Case Material: Stainless Steel 316L

Bezel: Stainless Steel with Sapphire Crystal

Strap: Stainless Steel with Deployant Clasp (Quick Release / 3 Clasp Adjustments)

Movement: ETA Powermatic 80

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Date, Flyer GMT

Power Reserve: 80 Hours