Certina Versus Seiko - Which Brand Has More History?

History is dependent on the market those 2 brands sold into. In Europe Certina is old and hardly sold into the North American market much and Seiko was not a real player in that market until the 70's with budget offerings. Both are rock stars in their respective countries though. Perspective is subject to location and brand bias. Certina has always gone the affordable quality route while Seiko went the budget route and now trying to go upscale with less precision offerings than Certina.

Certina was only founded in 1888, Seiko in 1881. Seiko by 7 years.

Certina is, as the other Swatch Group brands are, a victim of the stratification the group imposes to it. Certina is the “affordable sports watches brand” of the group and it will stay there until the group decides so, no matter how creative and how ground-breaking they new models are.

Seiko is basically independent as it only depends from the Seiko Epson group, and produces anything between $50 and (Alba, Lorus) to $500000 (Credor). They’ve been Olympics sponsors, beaten the Swiss at the chronometry contests to the point that they stopped organizing these contests, and single-handedly brought the industry to its knees with the first quartz watch. I just have to give this one to Seiko.

Seiko IMO is the best watch brand in the world. Keyword, brand. They know how to lean in on almost any market and history to boot.

Seiko, single handedly nearly killed Certina and a high percentage of the Swiss watch industry with their innovation and production of quartz - Certina only exist because of Swatch.

So there's your answer!!

Seiko for the quartz alone. Sorry Certina you're just not that interesting

What absolute nonsense, are we rating histories now?

I prefer the look of the Certina. At some point you see so many SKX’s you just don’t care to hear 7S26 or anything else about this overhyped watch.

Wow, that felt good to get off my chest😊. Love other Seiko’s especially their nicer 9F quartz models

Casio

I love them both but Certina will always have a special place in my heart

No need for you to vote then. It’s a poll of which brand is more significant, historically and otherwise.

Define significance

Is there any watch brand that approaches Seiko in terms of its continued history of industry-leading innovation? Not trying to fan-boy here, but for one brand to have introduced the first automatic chronograph to market, the first quartz watch to market (which, of course, changed the entire industry), spring drive, the dual-pulse escapement, and countless other innovations, it doesn’t make much sense to even compare them to a brand that had no industry-wide impact and has spent its last several decades as one of Swatch’s badge-engineered zombie brands. I’m not saying Certina-labeled watches are bad, it’s just a bizarre comparison.

I don't spend an hour a day looking at Certina's. Seiko's however...

Maybe give it a try?

Although I am a Certina fan, I have to admit that Seiko is a massive brand with iconic watches. They produce at another scale. Still. Certina has a strong tradition and great watches. From my modest 7 watch collection, I have a tie 2 Seiko and 2 Certina.

a brand that had no industry-wide impact?

yes, Certina did nothing of note

I give up, hence why I link to a Teddy post, saves me hours at least demonstrating that the Kurth brothers did bring something to the table…

I don’t see why we need to pitch these two against each other, for what end? Swiss vs Japan again?

People give way too much crap about what a brand did how many years ago. Take a look at what they do now.

I'll donate a 1/2 hour to each and see where it takes me. Probably buying another watch.

Certina make some good pieces but anyone saying they have more history than Seiko is probably smoking some of that good stuff

I didn't ask the question...no idea why anyone would. But whatever Certina's patents and achievements were in the past, they've simply never been a brand with impact at the level of an Omega, let alone Seiko. Not so much a Swiss v Japan thing, but a dead—if historic—brand vs an industry giant that has remained consequential on an international scale since the early 60s. It's like saying "Saab destroys VW..." or something. Saab made some very cool cars, but...

The description clearly states the reason for the poll.

I agree - but Certina isn’t a jobber brand, and you said that they had no industry-wide impact, which is not true, nor fair. Of course they were not an horological powerhouse, but they were but one brand within the Kurth brothers portfolio before they focused on the name as it translated across markets easier, so perspective is also important here.

Seiko have a significant amount of impact historically, no one is countering that, so it seems relatively pointless to throw these two up against each other, it’s neither fair nor is there a clear end goal.

A member stated that "Certina destroys Seiko and many other brands with history...."

and that is absolute bs. Comparing histories is just a waste of time, it is a completely ignorant statement, it doesn’t need a spotlight shone on it. It doesn’t need a counterattack on Certina either.

Certina's now get more wrist time than Seiko's for me recently, tool watches with class! ❤️ Seiko's to bits but the Certina DS Multi 8 is close to watch perfection for my needs.