Certina 260

Description

Most probably from the 1940s dates the 17 ligne caliber family Certina 260 (KF 260), whose base caliber the Certina 260, shown here, is.

As a so-called Lepine caliber it was made for pocket watches, where the crown is located at 12 o’clock and the decentral seconds hand on the opposite side at 6 o’clock.

With a height of only 4.2mm, it is pretty flat.

The steel execution is really nice, although there’s not really much decoration found. Only stripes on the bridges and a perleage beneath the balance wheel.

Technically, the movement is flawless, of course all important wheels are ruby beared, and in total, we have 15 jewels, the usual number at that time.

The gear train is the classical construction with large mainspring barrel, directly driven center minute wheel, third wheel, decentral seconds wheel at 6 o’clock and finally the escape wheel.

The escapement is a swiss pallet lever escapement.

The Certina uses a large, monometallic, two-leg screw balance, which is not yet shock protected. It beats with 18000 A/h and can be adjusted by a long regulator arm and a scale on the balance wheel cock.

On the dial side, you will of course recognize the yoke winding system.

An interesting detail is the “KF.261” hallmark, which references the sister caliber Certina 261. Both share the same base plate but have different bridges. On the Certina 260, the minute wheel bearing is part of the gear train bridge, while on the caliber 261, its bearing is part of the barrel bridge.

Technical data

Usage gallery