Sinn

Sinn was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1961 as "Helmut Sinn Spezialuhren", founded by Helmut Sinn, a former Luftwaffe pilot and instrument flight instructor. From the very beginning, the core of the business has been the production of cockpit watches and chronographs for aviation: the first executions assemble cases and movements of Swiss origin, with components signed Breitling, Gallet and Excelsior Park, according to the specifications dictated by Helmut Sinn himself. Direct sales, without going through traditional retailers, is a commercial choice the brand has maintained since its origins.

In September 1994 Helmut Sinn, then seventy-eight years old, sold the company to Lothar Schmidt, an engineer with a past at IWC, who refounded the business as Sinn Spezialuhren GmbH. It was the beginning of a phase of heavy investment in proprietary technologies developed in-house in Frankfurt: Ar-Dehumidifying technology (keeping the movement in dry argon with a copper sulfate drying capsule, since 1995), the Diapal escapement, free of lubricant at the most critical contact points, the Tegiment surface hardening of steel and protection against magnetic fields according to the DIN 8309 standard, as well as a special lubricating oil that allows operation between -45°C and +80°C.

Today Sinn is headquartered in Frankfurt-Sossenheim (since 2017) and continues to claim an identity as an "instrument watch" designed for professional use — pilots, divers, special police and customs units, firefighters — rather than for the luxury watch market. Helmut Sinn passed away in 2018, beyond the age of one hundred; in 2024 Lothar Schmidt established a foundation (UWE-Stiftung) to ensure the company's continuity over time.