Certina DS Action Titanium Light Blue Watch Review

Dive watches come in virtually all shapes, sizes and prices, ranging from accessible run-around beaters to prestige heirlooms upwards of £8,000. Today we’re focussing on the former when it comes to price, a sub-£500 dive watch that’s perfect for those summer holidays you’re probably in the middle of booking. Specifically, we’re getting hands-on with the Certina DS Action Titanium in its updated sky blue colourway.

First off, the elephant in the room, this is a quartz diver rather than mechanical. Immediately that knocks off a bit of its collector street-cred. But let’s be real for a moment, a practical, accessible dive watch should be quartz because it saves on price while also improving the reliability for everyday wear thanks to its extended battery life and ultra-high frequency that provides superb accuracy. Also, the regular tick of the seconds hand is useful as a running indicator while underwater.

Taking the watch out of the box, the first impression on picking it up is how light it is. Measuring 40mm in diameter with a thickness of 11.2mm, it’s not the biggest diver out there but it’s not diminutive either. You expect such a chunk of metal to be hefty but that’s not the case here thanks to its titanium construction. Titanium is famous for having a high strength to density ratio, which means it’s as durable as steel without the added weight (though it’s not quite so scratch resistant). It makes the watch a delight to wear for hour after hour because it doesn’t feel like you’re doing a bicep curl just taking a sip of your drink.

The screw down crown with built up guards also make it feel solid and dependable, which it is with 300m water resistance. This is a watch that you can actually take into the water without too much concern. It also has a unidirectional rotating bezel with sky blue aluminium insert featuring a diving scale so you can calculate immersion time. I will say there’s perhaps a bit more play in the bezel than I would like but that’s a fractional thing that I almost didn’t bring up at all.

Of course, the most important part of a dive watch, other than its water resistance, is the dial. The Certina DS Action Titanium is nice and legible with a sunray brushed display in monochrome blue in a light, pastel tone. The applied hour markers are in a combination of circle and wedge shapes with a date window occupying the position at 6 o’clock instead.

The combination of multiple shapes is standard on a dive watch because it let’s you read the dial from any orientation underwater without the added complexity of numerals. In addition to the hour scale there’s also a 60-minute scale on the flange, the peripheral ring that connects the dial to the bottom of the sapphire crystal.

I mentioned at the start of this review that the Certina DS Action Titanium is sub-£500 at £485. For a titanium diver with 300m water resistance that seems perfectly reasonable – touting high enough specs that you can actually use it practically while also not being so expensive that you should lock it in a vault rather than take it to the beach.

More details at Certina.

​Oracle Time 

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