Allemagne · Fondation 1961
Sinn Spezialuhren
Sinn makes dive watch cases from the steel used in German Navy submarines.
Texte éditorial en anglais.
Sinn Spezialuhren is an independent Frankfurt maker of tool watches for pilots, divers and special units, owned since 1994 by engineer Lothar Schmidt. It is known for material and case technologies such as Tegiment hardening, Ar-Dehumidifying and submarine steel, and for the TESTAF pilot-watch standard. Prices run from about 1,500 euros for the 556 to over 5,000 for chronographs.
Histoire
Helmut Sinn, a Second World War pilot and later instructor in blind flying, founded Helmut Sinn Spezialuhren in Frankfurt in 1961. The company sold navigation cockpit clocks and pilot's chronographs made to his specifications by Swiss suppliers, and sold them directly to customers rather than through retailers. In the 1960s and 1970s Sinn also supplied chronographs for the German Bundeswehr, including versions carrying both Heuer and Sinn names.
Sinn watches went into space twice in the 1980s and 1990s. German astronaut Reinhard Furrer wore a 140 S automatic chronograph on the Spacelab D1 mission in 1985, showing that an automatic movement worked in zero gravity, and Klaus-Dietrich Flade took a 142 S to the Mir station in 1992. In 1994 Helmut Sinn sold the business to Lothar Schmidt, an engineer who had worked at IWC and on the rebuilding of A. Lange & Söhne in Glashütte.
Under Schmidt, Sinn concentrated on technical features. Ar-Dehumidifying Technology appeared in 1995, the EZM mission timers for special units in 1997, Tegiment surface hardening in 2003 and cases of German submarine steel in 2005, first in the U1 diver. In 1999 Schmidt co-founded SUG in Glashütte to make cases. In 2012 Sinn presented TESTAF, a technical standard for pilot's watches developed with Aachen University of Applied Sciences, which became the basis of the German standard DIN 8330.
Helmut Sinn died in 2018 at 101. In 2017 the company moved into a new headquarters in Frankfurt-Sossenheim, and it opened a shop on the Römerberg in the old town in 2015. Staff grew from 12 in 1994 to about 160 by 2024, when Schmidt set up the UWE Foundation and said he was converting the company into a foundation to secure its future. Sinn uses mainly Swiss ETA and Sellita movements.
Fondateurs
- Helmut Sinn
- Founder · 1916–2018
- Former Luftwaffe pilot and blind-flying instructor who founded the company in 1961 and sold it to Lothar Schmidt in 1994. He later ran Guinand and other brands.
Dates clés
1961
Helmut Sinn Spezialuhren founded
Pilot and flight instructor Helmut Sinn starts selling cockpit clocks and pilot's chronographs in Frankfurt.
1985
140 S in space
Reinhard Furrer wears a Sinn 140 S automatic chronograph during the Spacelab D1 mission.
1994
Lothar Schmidt takes over
Engineer Lothar Schmidt, formerly of IWC and A. Lange & Söhne, buys the company from Helmut Sinn.
1995
Ar-Dehumidifying Technology
The 203 Ti Ar introduces a dry-capsule and inert-gas system that keeps the crystal from fogging.
1997
EZM mission timers
Sinn develops the EZM 1 and EZM 2 mission timers for police, rescue and special units.
2003
Tegiment hardening
Tegiment surface-hardening technology debuts on the 756 model to make cases more scratch-resistant.
2005
Submarine steel U1
The U1 diver introduces cases made from German submarine steel, rated to 1,000 m.
2012
TESTAF standard
Sinn presents TESTAF, a technical standard for pilot's watches that later forms the basis of DIN 8330.
2017
New headquarters in Sossenheim
Sinn moves to a new headquarters and workshop building in Frankfurt-Sossenheim.
Trois choses que savent les collectionneurs
Faster than sound with a Sinn
Alan Eustace wore a Sinn 857 UTC during his 2014 stratospheric balloon jump, reaching 1,322.9 km/h in free fall and temperatures around minus 77 °C.
The watch that made Bell & Ross
Early Bell & Ross watches were produced by Sinn in Frankfurt, and the cooperation ran until about 2002 when Bell & Ross moved production to Switzerland.
Steel from real U-boats
Besides new submarine-grade steel, Sinn has used steel taken from the decommissioned German Navy submarines U 15, U 16 and U 18 for special watch cases.
Modèles emblématiques
- 5562008
38.5 mm three-hand automatic with pilot-style dial; the usual entry to the brand.
- U12005
44 mm diver in German submarine steel, water resistant to 1,000 m.
- EZM 11997
First Sinn mission timer: chronograph with left-side crown and magnetic field protection.
- 1042013
41 mm pilot's watch with rotating countdown bezel and day-date.
Questions
- Is Sinn a German watch brand?
- Yes. Sinn Spezialuhren was founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1961 and is still based there, in Frankfurt-Sossenheim since 2017. Most of its movements come from Swiss suppliers.
- Who owns Sinn Spezialuhren?
- Lothar Schmidt, an engineer who previously worked at IWC and A. Lange & Söhne, bought the company from founder Helmut Sinn in 1994. In 2024 he said he was converting it into a foundation; it is not part of any watch group.
- What is Tegiment on a Sinn watch?
- Tegiment is Sinn's surface-hardening process for steel and titanium cases and bezels, introduced in 2003. It creates a hard outer layer that makes the metal far more scratch-resistant than untreated steel.
- How do you pronounce Sinn?
- Zinn, with a German soft 'S' that sounds like an English 'Z'. The brand takes its name from its founder, Helmut Sinn.