Certina
Encyclopedia
Watchmaker
A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since virtually all watches are now factory made, most modern watchmakers solely repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their parts, by hand...
company founded in Grenchen, 1888, by Adolf and Alfred Kurth, and currently an affiliate company of the Swatch Group.
History
Certina Kurth Frères SA was founded in 1888 when Adolf and Alfred Kurth opened in GrenchenGrenchen
Grenchen is a municipality in the district of Lebern in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.It is located at the foot of the Jura mountains between Solothurn and Biel. With over 16,000 inhabitants, it is one of the larger towns of the canton of Solothurn...
their first movement and supplies factory for the watchmaking industry. At the start Certina's staff consisted of three employees working in a workshop that was connected to the family home. Certina did not begin producing complete watches and timepieces for a few years which they then did alongside their work producing movements for other companies. By 1938 the company had expanded and 250 employees celebrated the 50th anniversary of the company. At that time Certina were already known as pioneers.
Certina continued to expand and by 1955 the company had 500 employees working between the factory and offices, producing 1'000 timepieces every day. Certina worked up a new business plan that expanded its operations and was at the time considered the most modern and best equipped watchmakers in the world.
By 1972 Certina employed 900 people and produced 600,000 watches every year. The company was ranked first in most major jewellery watch fairs, and they obtained both the "International Diamonds Awards" and the "Golden Rose" award. By this time Certina was producing 375,000 watch components per day and used 53,000 rubies.
1983 Certina became a member of the SMH Group (Swatch).
Affiliation to General Watch Co, Allgemeine Gesellschaft der schweizerischen Uhrenindustrie AG (ASUAG)
By 1971, the owning family had wisely decided to join General Watch CoGeneral Watch Co
General Watch Co. was the watch companies Holding of ASUAG.-History:ASUAG had been founded in 1931, with the assistance of the Swiss Government and the Swiss Banks, to combat the severe economic crisis and ensuing unemployment by means of refinancing General Watch Co. (GWC) was the watch companies...
, the newly created sub-holding of ASUAG
Allgemeine Gesellschaft der schweizerischen Uhrenindustrie AG
Allgemeine Schweizerische Uhrenindustrie AG is the former biggest Swiss Watch Industry Group that had been created with the assistance of the Swiss Government and the Swiss Banks, as an answer to the crisis called upon by the Big Depression, in 1931.1983, « ASUAG » and , then the second most...
, in order to concentrate their efforts with others. The onslaught of the Japanese Watch Industry (under the rules of their strategic management: see Strategic management
Strategic management
Strategic management is a field that deals with the major intended and emergent initiatives taken by general managers on behalf of owners, involving utilization of resources, to enhance the performance of firms in their external environments...
) with their own reliable and much cheaper automatic, and then Quartz watches, stopped Certina's expansion to a relative standstill. The restructuration involved the abandon of their own manufacture of Certina movement styles calibres , and by the end of the 1970s, Certina operations were moved to Biel/Bienne
Biel/Bienne
Biel/Bienne is a city in the district of the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.It is located on the language boundary and is throughout bilingual. Biel is the German name for the town, Bienne its French counterpart. The town is often referred to in both...
and the entity Edox & Technos
Technos (watches)
-TECHNOS:The trademark ″Technos″ was firstly registered in and used since 1924, with an increasing success, thanks to the quality of its mechanical and automatic watches. After WWII, it has had years of significant market shares, especially in Japan and in Brazil...
. Under the new management, Certina managed to hold onto some of their strongholds, especially in the Scandinavian countries. Upon the merger of SSIH and ASUAG companies, Certina became a member of a new managerial entity, together with Mido
Mido (watch)
Mido is a luxury Swiss watchmaker company founded in 1918.-History:Mido was founded in 1918 by George G. Schaeren in Biel, Switzerland. Mido comes from the Spanish phrase Yo mido meaning I measure....
and Tissot
Tissot
Tissot is a luxury Swiss watchmaker company founded in 1853 by Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son Charles-Émile Tissot who established the Tissot factory in the Swiss city of Le Locle, in the Neuchâtel area of the Jura Mountains....
, which has now established itself in Le Locle, (the newly elected Unesco World Heritage Site in Switzerland ).
Wristwatches, World’s First & Lines of Collection
- The first wrist-watches : were already produced by the company in 1938 : predominately ladies watches, because men still preferred pocket watches. For "exceptional performance" the founders received the Milan Fair's gold medal award.
- Digital Watch: 1936 Certina was the first company to produce the digital watch. It was driven by a spring movement. Rotating disks bearing inscribed numbers were used to display the time, instead of hands.
- DS (Double Security) Line: In 1959 Hans and Edwin Kurth had set themselves the objective of creating a brand new niche in the marketplace, based on quality through engineering and technical designs. Thus Certina created the concept of suspending the watch movement inside a highly reinforced case, which they named DS for "Double Security". The Certina DS were the first watches to raise the water resistancy and shock protection down to 6 m (previous watches were set at 2.2 meters). The Certina DS watch was taken up the Himalayas by a team who climbed the DhaulagiriDhaulagiriDhaulagiri is Earth's seventh highest mountain at ; one of fourteen over eight thousand metres. Dhaulagiri was first climbed May 13, 1960 by a Swiss/Austrian expedition....
and the watch withstood all changes in pressure and altitude. - Biostar: In 1971 Certina introduced the Biostar, the world's first watch that displayed human biorhythms.
- "Scratchproof" : Certina went on to produce many world firsts including the "unscratchable" DS-DiaMaster in tungsten carbide and scooped many awards.
Advanced Systems and Materials
Titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....
, 316L high grade stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
, sapphire glass, its own DS feature (such as the current "DS Podium", "DS First" or "DS Action") and ETA Swiss made movements are standard features. It currently offers collections, classified under the names "Automatic", "SPORT Classic", "SPORT Elegant" and "SPORT Xtreme", including some models claimed to perform up to 100 m underwater.
Motoring Sponsoring & Partnerships
The 2000s saw many new partnerships with motoring companies including Colin McRaeColin McRae
Colin Steele McRae, MBE was a Scottish rally driver born in Lanark.The son of five-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae and brother of rally driver Alister McRae, Colin McRae was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion and, in 1995, became the first British person and the youngest to win the...
, Sete Gibernau
Sete Gibernau
Manuel Sete Gibernau Bultó is a former Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. His racing career spanned two different eras of motorcycle racing, beginning with the two-stroke-dominated period prior to the 2002 season, and the four-stroke MotoGP era...
, and finally the Sauber Petronas Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
team, which is nowadays known as BMW Sauber
BMW Sauber
BMW has been involved in Formula One in a number of capacities since the inauguration of the World Drivers' Championship in . The company entered occasional races in the 1950s and 1960s , before building the BMW M12/13 inline-four turbocharged engine in the 1980s...
Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
team, of which Certina is currently engaged in a sponsorship.
Certina was timekeeper of the Motorcycling Grand Prix
Grand Prix motorcycle racing
Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix is the premier championship of motorcycle road racing currently divided into three distinct classes: 125cc, Moto2 and MotoGP. The 125cc class uses a two-stroke engine while Moto2 and MotoGP use four-stroke engines. In 2010 the 250cc two-stroke was replaced...
in the 1990s.
The Certina brand
In 1906 the Certina brand name was used for the first time, with Adolf and Alfred choosing to call their watches "Grana", the short form of "Granatus", the Latin name for GrenchenGrenchen
Grenchen is a municipality in the district of Lebern in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.It is located at the foot of the Jura mountains between Solothurn and Biel. With over 16,000 inhabitants, it is one of the larger towns of the canton of Solothurn...
.
In 1938 the company adopted the name "Certina", taken from the Latin "certus", meaning "assured", "certain", as their exclusive trademark for the export and marketing of their outstanding quality Swiss Made watches.