I handled a Sinn 358 today. Seemed very substantial and nicely finished.

Any Sinn owners out there to weigh in?

Thanks.

 

I had a Sinn 757 Diapal in grey.
Wonderful timepiece and technically top notch.
Absolutly worth it's money.
I just can recommend Sinn.

But then I found out that I'more liking Omega vintage watches. So I sold it and bought a Speed instead.
And now I'm more into Omega than ever....

 

Like vintage watches too but still love my Sinn...

356 Flieger II

 

My view is that Sinn makes good quality watches, with usually pretty standard movements, at reasonable prices.

I have owned one (now owned and shown here by Hijak), my wife owns one also, and I have serviced quite a number of Sinn watches. I have read of a few QC issues after the switch was made to Sellita movements from the ETA movements - in particular misalignment of the day and date on the SW500 so the equivalent of the ETA 7750. It's unclear if this is a simple printing error though.

The Diapal escapement I've serviced and it does run fine without oil. I do find that their case features can be somewhat gimmicky and of fairly limited value, like the argon gas fill in the case, and the copper sulphate capsules. Some of these features require sending the watch back to Germany, but if you don't care about the argon then anyone can service these. For watches with Diapal, make sure the watchmaker knows what to do (and what not to do) or will at least contact Sinn for technical information as there are some special procedures involved.

But along with freely sharing technical data in my experience, Sinn does sell parts to independent watchmakers, so that's always a bonus.

Overall I would be happy to own another one...and I do miss my 356 sometimes too!

Cheers, Al

 

Taking good care of it Al! Get lots of compliments on it.

 

I have an 856 UTC (which will be in the FS forum as soon as I can take some decent pictures), and I am mostly impressed by how well the case holds up to wear. It's four years old and looks brand new, not a nick, scratch or sign of brushing, not even on the bracelet clasp.

 

Old thread, but regarding service stateside, RGM handles Sinn warranty and I would assume this includes Diapal and the copper sulphate capsule, etc.

 

RGM handles warranty service, but only for watches purchased through Watchbuys. If you bought a watch from some other AD, say while on a trip to Germany or buying from an AD overseas, RGM will not service under warranty. For those the international warranty will require you to send it back to Germany for warranty repairs.

RGM can perform non-warranty work as well, but so can many other watchmakers. I've serviced plenty of Sinn watches, including models with Diapal and the copper sulfate capsules.

Cheers, Al

 

Sinn watches are great !! I have a sinn 356 and it survived many rounds of consolidation.

 

I just started my Sinning ways (EZM 1.1, 857 black and 556i - in that order). They are all extremely robust and keep great time. I appreciate Sinn's philosophy of Function before Form. The models I have are easy to read and simple (which may say a lot about me...). The 556i has the Stellita movement. I've only had it a brief time, with no troubles. Conversely, it keeps excellent time (so far about +1 sec a day or so).

 

Longtime Sinn owner, across various models. IME, quality is generally high, but it can vary from model to model and year to year. My 356 is great, as was my 757, but I had several in between with dodgy bezels, handsets and movements, including a new 103 St where the crown sheared off while winding. All these problems were addressed, in one way or another, but Sinn is not always responsive, and their NA distributor is in a monopoly position, which isn't perhaps ideal. FWIW, and much as I love some of their designs, it's one of the brands I'd do some research into before purchasing another, and make sure I had some warranty cover if I was buying used. They have some outstanding core pieces that offer great legibility and good casework, though I do find some of the "technology" a bit gimmicky (dehumidifying capsules, etc).

YMMV, of course, and their classic models are still some of my faves of the German tool-watch genre, along with a few from Damasko and MG.

 

They are generally good watches, but there's a reason they are not super-expensive. I've seen enough short cuts on watches from them that you have to understand they are building to a price. Things like the quality of some dials and hands are pretty average.

On the issue of WatchBuys having a monopoly in North America, I don't believe that is the case any longer. I know that there is now an AD in Canada in Calgary, J. Vair Anderson, and I have confirmed with them that they get their watches directly from Germany, and not through WatchBuys. I've also seen statements made by people who have said they were told Tourneau may be carrying the Sinn brand soon.

I think the days of WB having a monopoly may be coming to an end...

 

I'm enjoying my new to me 103




I feel like the finishing is good for the price. And, it's keeping good time at +1.5 seconds a day.

 

Sim watches are great, very good quality at an affordable price.

 

I'm currently on the lookout for a fully tegimented U2.. love Sinn design and asthetics. Ultimate tool watch

 

Would be VERY happy to see this effective monopoly end. Great news

 

For out of warranty work Sinn directed me to RGM. Different issue then what you are describing, but that was where Sinn in Germany forwarded me to for service.

 

I own two Sinn watches (a modern 103 and a vintage 8820t), both of which in my view offer great value for money. In my humble opinion they make some of the best tool watches around, certainly for their price point. The cases are very sturdy. The finishing is well done and solid, but nothing close to "zaratsu" quality—which is ok, because these watches are meant to be used and bump into things. The dial lay-out and quality are great, nothing short of what you would expect of a watch for professional use. I find Sinn dials to be some of the best designed and most legible out there. I'm a particularly big fan of their bracelets. Their riveted bracelet is very comfortable and wearable, their jubilee (they call it "fine link" themselves) is very well finished and heavy as fudge.

Now, for the movements, you'll find a lot of Valjoux 7750 under the hood. Its super accurate, but I find it clunky, wobbly and noisy. Sometimes the watch wobbles on my wrist because of the rotor movement. I also don't like how you can't change the date in between (roughly) 11AM and 1PM–even the cheapest Seiko movements are better than that. Their SZ movements are basically Valjoux iterations, and I like the SZ01 that tries to emulate the Lemania 5100. There's other incremental technological innovations like diapal and Ar-Dehumidifying Technology that I find pretty nifty.

As for service, I like them a lot. There's a lovely meat-and-potatoes kind of appeal to their operation. They are very accessible through e-mail and phone, and are generally willing to share archival information too. I get the impression there's not a lot of turnaround in staff, people stay with the company long.

 

Yes, as I noted they can also perform non-warranty work that you pay for. But since it's Watchbuys that pays for the warranty work with RGM, they won't do warranty work if you didn't buy the watch through Watchbuys. In that case, it has to go back to Germany for warranty work, or you would have to pay for the work at RGM.

 

Have this vintage Sinn 103 with 7760 hand-wind from the 1990's could be the 1980's hard to say from stuff I read on the net. Traded a Benthos 500 some years ago for it wanted it and did the one in one out thing that I don't do often just did not want to spend the money at the time so a trade for some thing I was not wearing. I had RGM service this they did a good job on the movement. But see the rare sweep hand that came with this model. Well it would not reset at the twelve and let them know this at the time they serviced it. Well there temp repair on the sweep hand did not work sent it back then they wanted to put a modern replacement hand that does not look like the bund hand and lume would be out of sink ruin the watch. Had them send it back and sent it to some one I trusted with vintage he tighten the pinion post on the sweep hand good as new that was a few years ago like I paid twice to get the job done right. Only sent it to RGM since I thought they were the best with Sinn. They mite be good with new stuff but vintage were you got to make due with the parts you have some times they don't know how to work on the fly and make some old parts work. Sinn does make some nice stuff. Just glad I don't have a ordinary solid white tip on the sweep hand that would not match the patina on the dial and other hands would of made me mad every time I saw the wrong sweep hand and stayed in the watch box for ever you think RGM would of understood that we vintage collectors are finicky .