Certina Caliber 28-16: Compact Manual Movement with Date for Everyday Elegance

The Certina Caliber 28-16 is a manual-wind mechanical movement with a date function, developed during the 1950s and 1960s. Part of Certina’s 28-series, this movement was designed for smaller wristwatches that combined elegant proportions with practical calendar features. While most of the 28-series focused on compact, no-date calibers, the 28-16 stood out by incorporating a date mechanism into its small, hand-wound architecture—making it a functional yet refined choice for dress watches.

This caliber symbolizes a transitional era, when mechanical watches were evolving to include more complications without sacrificing size or reliability.

Technical Specifications

Despite its small footprint, the 28-16 packs a full calendar system, which was uncommon for movements in the sub-20 mm range at the time.

Design and Functional Features

The 28-16 maintains a traditional manual-wind construction, optimized for low height and consistent accuracy. It features:

• Bridge-style layout for gear stability

• Sub-seconds register at 6 o’clock

• Date disk driven by a 24-hour gear beneath the dial

• Date changeover mechanism integrated into the keyless works

• Hand setting and date advancement through the crown (manual turn)

The absence of a quickset function means users must rotate the hands past midnight repeatedly to advance the date—a common design among mid-century mechanical movements.

Application in Certina Watches

Watches housing the 28-16 movement were mostly elegant dress watches or practical daily wear models from the 1960s. They typically feature:

• Case sizes between 32–35 mm

• Polished or lightly brushed finishes

• Slim bezels with domed acrylic crystals

• Dials with printed or applied indices and a date window at 3 o’clock

These watches often carried "Certina" branding along with “Swiss Made” at the bottom of the dial, and were cased in either stainless steel or gold-plated finishes. A handful of these models included screw-down casebacks, improving dust and moisture resistance.

Servicing Considerations

The 28-16 is generally watchmaker-friendly, especially for those familiar with vintage Swiss hand-wound movements.

Service notes:

• Inspect the calendar jumper spring for proper tension.

• Avoid over-oiling the date disk teeth and jumper arm.

• The click and crown wheel assembly should be disassembled with care—small components may spring loose.

• Lubricate pivots with Moebius 9010, and use 9501 or 9415 for calendar components.

Like many manual calibers of the era, regular maintenance ensures long life, stable amplitude, and reduced positional variance.

Collector and Enthusiast Appeal

While not a rare movement, the 28-16 holds strong appeal for vintage collectors due to its:

• Slim profile

• Reliable date complication

• Period-authentic sub-seconds layout

• Vintage styling in cases often in great condition

Enthusiasts value the 28-16’s blend of mechanical tradition and functionality, especially those looking for smaller vintage watches with useful features.

Conclusion

The Certina Caliber 28-16 strikes a balance between compact design and mechanical sophistication. As one of the few small-format hand-wound movements with a date function, it served an important role in Certina’s catalog during a time of innovation and style evolution. Today, it remains a rewarding movement for both collectors and wearers—offering Swiss precision, historical charm, and everyday usability in a vintage package that still holds its own.