A Complete Guide To Sinn Watch Brand

Sinn’s Story

The origins of the German watchmaker Sinn go in the year 1961. In 1961, the aviation instructor, aviator, and rally-pilot Helmut Sinn founded the company in Frankfurt am Main. In the beginning, the company was focused on buying Swiss watches made to Helmut Sinn’s specifications and then selling the watches. The company specializes in watches with valuable functions, including chronographs, diver’s watches, and pilot’s watches.

Engineer Lothar Schmidt bought the Sinn company in 1994. Slowly Schmidt introduced his own innovations in functional design, such as the model 244 that had protection from magnetic fields in the same year. With this model, the period of private-label watches at Sinn was over. Schmidt was a former employee for IWC located in Schaffhausen.

Helmut Sinn decided to return to the watch business in 1995. He purchased Guinand. Swiss company Guinand and shifting the company from Switzerland to Frankfurt am Main. Sinn was already working with the manufacturer before, in the past, as Guinand was among the companies who made timepieces for Sinn. Helmut Sinn remained the owner of Guinand until the year 2014. In the first quarter of 2018, this legendary figure of the German watchmaking industry passed away at 101.

Equipped To Meet Any Challenge

Sinn Spezialuhren wristwatches are functional, highly durable, creative, and innovative. The popularity of the German company based in Frankfurt am Main is due mainly in part to their mission watches utilized by firefighters, rescue teams, and special units. The maritime section of GSG 9 Anti-Terrorism special operations division within the German Federal Police (Bundespolizei) utilizes this UX GSG 9 Diver’s Watch. It is made from manganese steel that is highly resistant to seawater. Additionally, the watch is waterproof up to 12,000 meters (1,200 bars ).

In addition to highly water-resistant dive watches and rugged timepieces for missions, Sinn has an extensive range of models of watches for pilots. These can be found as three-hand watches or equipped with GMT and chronograph capabilities. The most popular models show two time zones and are set with time intervals of up to twelve hours. Sinn also produces aviation watches that meet DIN 8330. DIN 8330 norm. This is rare as most aviator watch companies declare them to be such without being officially certified. Certified models can completely replace the instruments used in aircraft timing. They can easily withstand the severe circumstances encountered during flight. These DIN 8330 standards adapt to the TESTAF regulation (Technische Standard Fliegeruhren, i.eTechnical Standard of Pilot’s Timepieces), developed in collaboration with The Aachen University of Applied Sciences in cooperation and Sinn Spezialuhren.

Sinn 903 St With A Slide Rule

The 903 St navigation chronograph is an element of the Instrument Chronograph collection. It instantly brings to mind the famous Breitling Navitimer. Like its predecessor, the Breitling Navitimer, the Sinn watch has a crowned head that can be used for math-based calculations. With the rotating inner ring, you can determine the average speed and the speed of ascending or descending in the course and the amount of fuel consumed. The first Breitling watch, The 903, features an auxiliary crown on the left of the dial, located at the 10 o’clock mark, allowing you to alter the slide rule. On the Navitimer, however, the contrary, the crowned head can be adjusted by rotating the bezel.

What is the reason the two watches are so identical? In the latter part of the 1970s, at the peak of the Quartz Crisis, Helmut Sinn bought the rights and components from Breitling to create the 903 St’s navigational chronograph. So, Sinn’s chronograph is not a replica. However, of the Navitimer, it is a legal successor that has improvements from Sinn. 903 St models in excellent condition will cost you around $2800, and used models drop to about EUR 2,300. The cost of a used Breitling Old-Navitimer is about 3300 euros. The Breitling watch is held in value longer, making it more suitable for collectors.