A thousand quid for 500 metres? Go on then
By Tom Hargreaves, Falmouth, Cornwall ·
Not the Rolex, not the Omega. If someone on one of my courses asks what to buy for about a grand, it's this.
Certina's DS system (Double Security, going back to 1959) was all about shock resistance and a case that could take punishment, and the PH500M is their reissue of a 1970s diver built along those lines. The cushion case is 43 mm across and 13.5 mm thick, which sounds big, but the shape keeps it compact on the wrist. Rated to 500 m with a closed caseback and a screw-down crown. Inside is the Powermatic 80.611 with 80 hours of reserve, so it'll still be running on Monday after a weekend in a kit bag.
The price is $1,050 to $1,150. For that money it's very hard to argue with. Seiko is the obvious competition, the Turtle and the Sumo and so on, and this matches them for toughness and beats them on reserve.
Now the grumbling. The fabric strap it comes on is fine for the high street and a bit useless in the water once it's waterlogged. I'd put it on a rubber strap the day it arrived. And the bezel, from what I've handled, is decent but not brilliant; the clicks could be crisper.
A long aside, because this reminds me of it: the best-kept dive watch I ever saw on a student was a battered old Seiko on a cheap rubber strap with the bezel half worn off. She'd done four hundred dives with it. Never failed her once. That's the spirit the PH500M is going for, and I think it gets there.
Buy one, put it on rubber, stop worrying about it.