About a month ago I picked up a Tissot Seastar 1000 36mm... a nice watch, but I had some niggles with it. I'm not crazy about the glossy bezel and polished case and bracelet bits. It also wears really small. I'm normally fine with small-ish watches, but this was pushing it a bit. I tried the 40mm version but that one didn't quite look right either.
I hadn't considered the Certina in the past because it was priced a bit higher than I wanted to pay for a carefree summer watch. It also has the C07 movement which I've been reluctant to try until now because I'm a bit of a control freak about regulation. I managed to find a really good deal on a lightly used one, though, so I decided to give it a try.
It arrived yesterday. The Tissot is going up for sale.
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The Certina is only 2mm bigger in diameter but it looks and feels much more substantial than the Tissot. It's also a good bit heavier, thicker, and longer lug to lug, which can be positive or negative depending on your perspective, but those things add up to make a big difference. That combined with all brushed finishing on the case and bracelet and an aluminum bezel with lume pip give the Certina a more "professional" look and feel.
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That's not to say the Certina is totally spartan, though. I expected the dial would be one of those Seiko style with pressed out indices, but under 10x it looks like these are actually applied, similar to the Tissot, both of which surprised me. The hands have a basic design, but are precisely executed with no rough bits. The second hand is a nice easter egg with its taper that runs all the way from the back to the front. It's a subtle but attractive detail. The bezel is very grippy and the blue insert has just the right amount of luster to it, with a bright blue that complements the subtle sunburst dial. The turtle motif on the case back is another nice touch, which I actually prefer to a display case back on this one.
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Here's why. The movement is about as no-nonsense as the rest of the watch. Nothing to see here. The "DS" system that Certina loves to mention in its marketing seems to amount to nothing more than the standard protection seen in most watches at this price level. The photo shows just a regular metal spacer screwed in place and a case back gasket. The crown and tube look pretty much exactly like the Tissot Seastar, as well.
As for the movement's performance, I'm actually pretty pleased with it. I'm normally a bit of a control freak about movement accuracy, and tend to fiddle with regulators on my affordable watches. I've avoided the C07 movement because regulating it is not an option for me and I didn't want to end up with something that was way off precision that I couldn't do anything about. On the timegrapher I am seeing some variance depending on position, but on wrist it's cool as a cucumber... so far only losing about 1s in a day. I think maybe getting an Omega that I'm afraid to open may have helped me become a little more zen about accuracy. This would seem a good next step on that journey.
Another thing worth mentioning is the bracelet. There's only two micro adjust holes on the clasp but that's a bit deceiving. There's also half links which are slightly bigger than half and enable some pretty fine tuning on the size. There's no on the fly micro adjust, unfortunately, but there is a pretty rough and ugly wet suit extension which they could've just left off and been just as well.
Annoyances... the bezel doesn't quite line up perfectly and has a slight bit of backplay. The polished crown is less grippy than I would like. The male end links make it kinda push the boundaries of wearability despite the small diameter. And the lugs are 19mm, which is just inherently annoying. These are all minor issues I can overlook pretty easily.
I think this will do nicely for pool season.
I hadn't considered the Certina in the past because it was priced a bit higher than I wanted to pay for a carefree summer watch. It also has the C07 movement which I've been reluctant to try until now because I'm a bit of a control freak about regulation. I managed to find a really good deal on a lightly used one, though, so I decided to give it a try.
It arrived yesterday. The Tissot is going up for sale.
The Certina is only 2mm bigger in diameter but it looks and feels much more substantial than the Tissot. It's also a good bit heavier, thicker, and longer lug to lug, which can be positive or negative depending on your perspective, but those things add up to make a big difference. That combined with all brushed finishing on the case and bracelet and an aluminum bezel with lume pip give the Certina a more "professional" look and feel.
That's not to say the Certina is totally spartan, though. I expected the dial would be one of those Seiko style with pressed out indices, but under 10x it looks like these are actually applied, similar to the Tissot, both of which surprised me. The hands have a basic design, but are precisely executed with no rough bits. The second hand is a nice easter egg with its taper that runs all the way from the back to the front. It's a subtle but attractive detail. The bezel is very grippy and the blue insert has just the right amount of luster to it, with a bright blue that complements the subtle sunburst dial. The turtle motif on the case back is another nice touch, which I actually prefer to a display case back on this one.
Here's why. The movement is about as no-nonsense as the rest of the watch. Nothing to see here. The "DS" system that Certina loves to mention in its marketing seems to amount to nothing more than the standard protection seen in most watches at this price level. The photo shows just a regular metal spacer screwed in place and a case back gasket. The crown and tube look pretty much exactly like the Tissot Seastar, as well.
As for the movement's performance, I'm actually pretty pleased with it. I'm normally a bit of a control freak about movement accuracy, and tend to fiddle with regulators on my affordable watches. I've avoided the C07 movement because regulating it is not an option for me and I didn't want to end up with something that was way off precision that I couldn't do anything about. On the timegrapher I am seeing some variance depending on position, but on wrist it's cool as a cucumber... so far only losing about 1s in a day. I think maybe getting an Omega that I'm afraid to open may have helped me become a little more zen about accuracy. This would seem a good next step on that journey.
Another thing worth mentioning is the bracelet. There's only two micro adjust holes on the clasp but that's a bit deceiving. There's also half links which are slightly bigger than half and enable some pretty fine tuning on the size. There's no on the fly micro adjust, unfortunately, but there is a pretty rough and ugly wet suit extension which they could've just left off and been just as well.
Annoyances... the bezel doesn't quite line up perfectly and has a slight bit of backplay. The polished crown is less grippy than I would like. The male end links make it kinda push the boundaries of wearability despite the small diameter. And the lugs are 19mm, which is just inherently annoying. These are all minor issues I can overlook pretty easily.
I think this will do nicely for pool season.
