Certina goes deep – New DS SUPER PH2000M shows the way forward

Lake Zurich lies almost mirror-smooth when the day's first coordinates are handed out. A few minutes later we are standing leaning over the railing of a boat trying to fish Certina's latest news item out of the water. At every position a buoy is waiting. Attached to it is a long line and at the very bottom a small bag. When the bag breaks the surface of the water and is opened, the contents are revealed, the new DS SUPER PH2000M.

Paid collaboration with Certina

Text and photo Eqotime : Mia Litström

Event photo Certina: Mathieu Meile

It is an unusual way to present a diver's watch. At the same time it feels completely logical.

Earlier in the day we also got a chat with Certina's new CEO, Dieter Pachner, a man who after more than four decades in the watch industry, among others at Glashütte Original, has been given the task of leading one of Sweden's most loved Swiss watch brands into the next chapter. What stuck the most during the conversation was not strategies or market plans. It was his background. He is a trained watchmaker and began his path at the watchmaker's bench long before he ended up in boardrooms and management groups. When he talks about watches you can still tell.

His favourite part of a mechanical movement is the escapement, the several hundred year old construction that still regulates time in modern mechanical watches. For him watchmaking is about respect for the technology, the craftsmanship and the history. It is hard not to see the same way of thinking in the DS SUPER PH2000M.

During the interview he came back several times to the fact that Certina is to be clearer about its sporting heritage. Diving, Padel and cross-country skiing are to be the brand's three most important pillars going forward. The products are to get greater focus and the stories behind them are to be told better. Certina is not to invent itself anew, but to get better at being Certina.

The DS SUPER PH2000M feels like the first clear manifestation of that ambition.

The model builds further on a heritage that stretches back to the 1960s' PH200M and the 1970s' DS-2 SUPER PH1000M. PH stands for Hydrostatic Pressure, hydrostatic pressure, and has long been the designation for Certina's most extreme diver's watches. With the new PH2000M the brand takes a further step by doubling the depth rating to an impressive 2000 metres.

For many it is precisely the figure 2000 metres that will be the first thing you notice. But once you get the watch on the wrist it is something else that impresses the most. Titanium.

Despite its 43 millimetres in diameter and a height of 16 millimetres, the PH2000M feels considerably more manageable than the specifications suggest. The case is made of grade 2 titanium and all the versions are moreover delivered with a matching titanium bracelet. The result is a professional diver's watch that feels surprisingly light and well balanced on the wrist.

Purely technically the specification list is extensive. Inside, the automatic Powermatic 80.611 movement works with a Nivachron hairspring and 80 hours of power reserve. The case has a screwed crown and an automatic helium valve placed at nine o'clock. Rotating bezel is made of ceramic and uses a safety system where it has to be pressed down before it can be turned. Certina's latest generation of DS Concept Extreme Shock Resistance is moreover meant to give improved protection against knocks and strains.

In other words this is no retro-inspired everyday diver that only borrows aesthetics from older models. The PH2000M is built as a serious professional tool. The collection is launched in four versions that all share the same basic platform but have completely different personalities.

The black model with orange details is probably the most faithful to the classic tool watch's aesthetic. The combination of a black dial, black ceramic bezel and orange minute hand gives clear associations to professional diver's watches from the 1960s and 70s.

The version with a white dial and blue bezel feels considerably more maritime. The light dial together with the blue colouring gives the model an almost summery expression while it maintains its professional DNA.

The yellow version is without doubt the collection's most outgoing model. Here there are clear connections to the colourful design that characterised many professional sports watches during the 1970s. In pictures it can be experienced as daring, but in reality the colour works surprisingly well together with the titanium case.

Most interesting is perhaps still the limited STC version, developed together with Sea Turtle Conservancy. The model is produced in 1959 examples, a figure that refers both to the year when Certina introduced its DS concept and to the year when the organisation was founded. The turquoise gradient dial that transitions towards black is moreover the most modern interpretation in the series and gives a clear depth to the design. At the same time it is hard to disregard the bigger picture.

Sweden has for a long time been one of Certina's most important markets. The new CEO himself describes Sweden as one of the brand's strongest countries together with Switzerland, Poland and Germany. Few Swiss watch brands have the same historical anchoring here, and few brands have managed either to build an equally strong reputation around robust sports watches with high quality at reasonable prices. It is also here that the PH2000M hits entirely right.

For around 16 700 kronor a specification level is offered that is normally found in considerably higher price classes, a titanium case, titanium bracelet, ceramic bezel, helium valve, 2000 metres of water resistance, Nivachron technology and 80 hours of power reserve. But perhaps it is not the specifications that make the model most interesting. Perhaps it is instead that the PH2000M feels like a watch built by people who still believe in the tool watch's original idea. To create something robust, functional and technically credible rather than chasing trends. That the models are delivered both with a rubber strap and a titanium bracelet makes the release even better and more versatile.

After the conversation with Certina's new CEO and after having spent a day literally fishing the brand's latest diver's watch out of Lake Zurich, it is hard not to draw the same conclusion, the DS SUPER PH2000M is not only about going deeper below the surface of the water. It is about Certina once again going deeper into its own identity.

Event pictures