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Sinn (watchmaker)
Encyclopedia
Sinn is a high end watch-making company based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany that was established by pilot and flight instructor Helmut Sinn in 1961.
Solely selling the watches with direct marketing, thereby avoiding additional costs of intermediate trade, Sinn was able to sell its watches with a very good price/performance ratio. The watches were manufactured as OEM products in Switzerland according to Sinn's specifications and very popular among pilots because of their outstanding quality and design.
In 1994, Helmut Sinn sold the company to Lothar Schmidt, who constructed watches in the Porsche-Design Team in the 1970s and later on was authorized officer of the IWC
. Among other things, Schmidt designed watch cases made from titanium
for the IWC and after 1990 he was responsible for the rebuilding of the IWC brand A. Lange & Söhne
.
Schmidt changed the name of the company to Sinn - Spezialuhren zu Frankfurt - (special watches from Frankfurt) and created a new range of watch models.
Today, as many as 10,000 watches are sold per year and the direct marketing has been expanded by establishing depots where watches are sold outside of Frankfurt.
Some years after he sold his company, Helmut Sinn returned to the watch business, building and selling watches of the brands Guinand, Jubilar und Chronosport in Frankfurt am Main in Germany. From 1993 to 2002, Sinn also produced watches for Bell & Ross
.
Special techniques, Sinn has developed for its watches:
History
After its establishment, the company constructed instrumental watches and watches for pilots based on Mr. Sinn's extensive aviation experience, that was primarily based on dissatisfaction with the flight watches that were available for pilot and navigational purposes at that time. Sinn's own designs incorporated the features and functionality that he felt more fit for the purpose as an instrument watch. This design philosophy has informed the company's culture right through to the present day.Solely selling the watches with direct marketing, thereby avoiding additional costs of intermediate trade, Sinn was able to sell its watches with a very good price/performance ratio. The watches were manufactured as OEM products in Switzerland according to Sinn's specifications and very popular among pilots because of their outstanding quality and design.
In 1994, Helmut Sinn sold the company to Lothar Schmidt, who constructed watches in the Porsche-Design Team in the 1970s and later on was authorized officer of the IWC
International Watch Company
International Watch Co, also known as IWC, is a high-end Swiss watch manufacturer located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. IWC is an active member of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH....
. Among other things, Schmidt designed watch cases made from titanium
Titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....
for the IWC and after 1990 he was responsible for the rebuilding of the IWC brand A. Lange & Söhne
A. Lange & Söhne
A. Lange & Söhne is a trademark of German watchmaking company Lange Uhren GmbH , a subsidiary of Richemont SA. Lange pocket and wrist watches are among the finest in the world, competing with watches produced by Swiss firms such as Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin.- History :Lange was...
.
Schmidt changed the name of the company to Sinn - Spezialuhren zu Frankfurt - (special watches from Frankfurt) and created a new range of watch models.
Today, as many as 10,000 watches are sold per year and the direct marketing has been expanded by establishing depots where watches are sold outside of Frankfurt.
Some years after he sold his company, Helmut Sinn returned to the watch business, building and selling watches of the brands Guinand, Jubilar und Chronosport in Frankfurt am Main in Germany. From 1993 to 2002, Sinn also produced watches for Bell & Ross
Bell & Ross
Bell & Ross is a French watch company headed by the French and Swiss designers Bruno Belamich and Carlos A. Rosillo. The brand was launched in 1992, and the first watches were designed by Belamich and Rosillo and made by a German watchmaker, Sinn....
.
Technology
From the beginning, Sinn's emphasis was on creating special purpose instrumental watches that performed under extremely adverse operating conditions such as high speed, high and low pressures and altitudes, intense heat or pressure, extreme cold, high magnetic interference, and submergence in liquids. Therefore, the brand is dedicated to engineering that tries to find technical solutions for special application areas of watches as well as solving typical problems of (mechanical) watches with an emphasis on highly readable watches under all conditions.Special techniques, Sinn has developed for its watches:
- Scratch resistant stainless steel for the watch cases and bracelets with so-called "tegiment technology": with a special hardening process, the upper layer of the steel becomes as hard as ceramics (today as much as 1,500 VickersVickers hardness testThe Vickers hardness test was developed in 1924 by Smith and Sandland at Vickers Ltd as an alternative to the Brinell method to measure the hardness of materials. The Vickers test is often easier to use than other hardness tests since the required calculations are independent of the size of the...
). - EscapementEscapementIn mechanical watches and clocks, an escapement is a device that transfers energy to the timekeeping element and enables counting the number of oscillations of the timekeeping element...
without using lubricant: the right combination of materials reduces the friction as if the parts of the escapement would be lubricated, therefore, extending the maintenance intervals of the watch. - Technology to avoid the penetration of humidityHumidityHumidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,...
into the watch case: the watch case is filled with ArgonArgonArgon is a chemical element represented by the symbol Ar. Argon has atomic number 18 and is the third element in group 18 of the periodic table . Argon is the third most common gas in the Earth's atmosphere, at 0.93%, making it more common than carbon dioxide...
to avoid humidity that diffuses through the material of the watch case. Additionally, the watch case is equipped with a glass capsule filled with copper sulfate that takes up humidity that is entering the case anyway—initially colored white, the copper sulfate changes to blue when used up. This technology also prevents the glass of the watch from getting steamed up if the surrounding temperature is rapidly changing, for example when the watch is entered into cold water. - Almost perfectly waterproof and extremely resistant to water pressure watch cases: the case is filled with teflon oil that almost cannot be compressed. Therefore, the watch is very waterproof and may be used in depths of several thousand meters. The case of the model Sinn UX / EZM 2b is certified for 12,000 meters, however, the thermo-compensated ETA 955.652 quartz controlled movementMovement (clockwork)In horology, a movement is the internal mechanism of a clock or watch, as opposed to the case, which encloses and protects the movement, and the face which displays the time. The term originated with mechanical timepieces, whose movements are made of many moving parts...
can only withstand around 5,000 meters without losing functionality. This technology only works with quartz movements as a mechanical movement does not work properly in the viscous oil. Another advantage of this technology is that the time can be read very easily under water. - Usage of U-boatU-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
steel for the cases: the material is very good for hardening and very seawater resistant as it the same material that is actually used to build German submarines. - Usage of special oil: by using a specially developed lubricating oil, the watches have a temperature usage range from –45°C up to +80°C.