Lothar Schmidt doesn’t look like the kinda guy who’s gonna party like a rock star to celebrate 25 years as Sinn Spezialuhren‘s CEO. But you gotta hand it to Mr. Schmidt: his Frankfurt-based watchmaking enterprise has found a niche in the market, producing handsome, hand-crafted timepieces in the $1500 to $5k range, best bought from watchbuys.com (TTAW never takes commissions). Here are four of my favorites . . .
First up: the Sinn 556. The 38.5mm timepiece is a meisterwerk of German minimalist legibility. At $1,160 it’s an excellent entry point for automatic movement aficionados ready to commit their first Sinn.
White may not be the new black, but the B&W Sinn 104 somehow combines a vintage feel with a modern sensibility. (Either that or I just like it.) The auto runs $1630 and offers one of the least objectionable, most perfectly sized day/date complications in modern horology.
I’m not a fan of U2, either the band or the submarine. With its black bezel and orange second-time zone inner ring and second hand, the Sinn U2 SDR EZM 5 diver’s watch is a highly-legible Euro diving spec-compatible (filled with inert gas) timepiece. It’s a $2860 heirloom-quality addition for the aquatic-minded collector.
