Sinn 103 Tachymeter Chrono for Manufactum

[mks4]

Hello all:

A couple non-Rolex reviews from me within a week, but I had to post this one since it's such an odd/interesting piece. Settle in and get ready for some reading...or come back later to finish!

Some background on this. I moved to Frankfurt from the USA for a work assignment and while I knew Sinn and the fact that Sinn was from Frankfurt, it took me over a year to get to their factory store at their headquarters here (I was afraid I'd buy!!). Many of you readers are global travelers and I am sure that many of you get caught in Frankfurt for hours on end or, possibly, overnight with not much to do. Well, I highly recommend stopping into the Sinn headquarters. It's open during the week until 6 and on the first Saturday of every month. It is amazing...all of their watches are sitting out and you can try them on at your leisure without any bother and the sales staff is amazingly friendly. But I digress...quite a lot! So, I headed to Sinn one Saturday and had a lot of fun but noticed within a locked glass case this special retro, aged looking Sinn 103 chrono and asked, "what is this?" The Sinn specialist mentioned that it was a special watch made for a department store in Germany called Manufactum (think Tokyu Hands in Japan or something like Hammacher Schlemecher in the USA...neat goods and very high end) and that there are only 100! Plus, they are only available at Manufactum. Well, this piqued my interest as I love the 103 Chrono but this vintage-y look was really something. The next day, I stopped into Manufactum in Frankfurt and tried it on. Needless to say, I was smitten. With Christmas coming, my GF ended up getting it for me and I received it a "bit" early.

What is this watch?

Well, as mentioned before, this is the Sinn 103 Chrono, but this version is officially the 103 ST OU with some calling it the Tachymeter Chronograph and some calling it the Tachy Chrono. It's an edition of 100 and is only available at Manufactum.

http://www.manufactum.com/sinn-chron...eter-p1463989/

If you don't know the 103, it's available in many different colors, crystals, etc. In this edition, it's only available with an acrylic crystal, solid caseback, and brown leather strap. The case is 41mm in diameter, uses the venerable Valjoux 7750 automatic movement, can swim to 200 meters, and lists for 1350 Euro. The interesting thing, complication-wise, is that the center mounted chrono-timer only measures for 1 minute as the lone subdial exists as the running sweep seconds counter. So, basically, versus a normal Sinn 103, you lose 2 subdials and loads of functionality. Not to worry, this thing makes up for substance with its looks!

The Dial:

The dial on this watch is a serious highlight and, surprise surprise, what drew me to the watch. Today, there are several firms touting aged-looking dials with JLC being the most recently notable. This 103 has similar aging in the lume and it looks wonderful. It has the type of dial that would look at home while driving in a classic German or English roadster while wearing string-backed gloves. The face has an odd spiral design around the center and this allows one to use the chrono function to measure speed. I honestly have no idea on how to use this but will look into it at some point. The watch was designed for a very specific need and I suppose one has to honor that. For those who complain about the loss of functionality versus a standard 103 (or any chrono), who really uses these things? Hands are syringe style with aged lume as well. Chrono hand has a beautiful aged teardrop at the end. Sweep seconds sub hand is a nice white hand and flows around a faint counter...nice touch indeed. Knowing the love of patina around this forum, the watch would likely sell itself solely on that virtue...especially at this price.

The Bezel:

The bezel on the 103 is an anodized, black, aluminum affair with an aged, luminous arrow at the 12:00. It's great looking and makes the piece look like an old Breitling...not a bad thing IMO as the old Breitlings are simply classic. Anyhow, the bezel is numbered every 5 minutes with small indices for every minute. It is bidirectional with no clicks.

Crown and Pushers:

The crown is a nice domed piece with an "S" on the end and is surrounded by crown guards. It is screw-down with quick-date setting and the movement hacks. Pushers are simple and are not screw-down. The action on the pushers is solid and gives the feeling of quality.

Case and Crystal:

Case is polished flawlessly and has nice down-pointed lugs that make the 41mm feel much smaller than in actuality. Case back is matte and is solid. There is nothing indicating the Limited Edition status of this watch on the back which is disappointing. I do marvel at the fact that this is water proof to 200m...not too shabby!

I mentioned the acrylic crystal. Well, it is fantastic and, IMHO, it would have been a travesty to fit a sapphire to this beauty. In the flesh, the acrylic really ices the cake.

Band and buckle:

Very cool dyed brown padded leather "rally racing" style band with brown stitching, 2 loops, and stainless Sinn-signed buckle. It's a nice in-house band, but could use an extra hole for my small wrists. I plan on getting a distressed leather NATO to fit this or hitting the Sinn shop for another band. Still, the look is great on this band with the watch, but does give it a more sporty/casual look. The band also really gives the watch a Breitling look.

Overall comments:

This is a cool watch...period. The fact that you can buy one and say that you have 1% of the production run from a watchmaker with a solid reputation adds to the cool factor. It looks fantastic and exudes great quality for a price that makes it difficult to complain. (Did I mention the price? ) The last time I checked, these are still available...probably because the distribution (1 store) keeps them out of the limelight and the only advertising is word-of-mouth or via WIS sites. If you've been pining for a chrono or something retro-like, or a Sinn for that matter, give this a shot. Believe me, you will never see someone else wearing one!

Mike