Home, 2006-12-27
Sinn 256.010
I first got interested in the Sinn 156 after reading about it here (http://www.chronoguy.com/horology/sinn156/), but the size (43mm) made the watch to large for my wrist. When I later stumbled upon the Sinn 256 with a design similar to the 156 I decided to get this. The designs of the 156 and 256 are both derived from the Heuer 230 Bundeswehr watch http://www.onthedash.com/Guide/_Chronographs/67.Bundeswehr/.
I bought the watch from Ralf Häffner at a good price and with their 1000 day guarantee. I ordered it with a black leather strap, but the watch can also be bought with a bracelet.
The watch looks pretty much like the photos I have seen---except the color of the chrono hands---they look red on photos, but are really a "screaming" orange.
The case it bead blasted steel with matching crown and pushers. The crown is signed and screws down. The watch is antimagnetic and water resistant to 100m (but the chronograph pushers cannot be operated safely under water). The holes for spring bars are drilled through. There is not enough space between lugs and case to hold a rhino strap, but a NATO works well. The watch is fitted with a domed acrylic crystal.
| Bezel | 38.5mm |
| Case | 39mm |
| Width incl. crown | 43.5mm |
| Lug tip to lug tip | 45.5mm |
| Lug spacing | 20mm |
| Height | 15mm |
| Weight | 68g |
Dimensions (measured).
The bezel is friction-based, bidirectional and works well. There is no luminous pip at 12. It is hard to operate the bezel with gloves.
There is little writing on the dial, and the military on the 156 is changed to the more civilian chronograph. The date wheel is in german (can be ordered with a en english date wheel at an additional cost) and is white on black. The hands are grouped by color: all the chronograph hands are orange and the other hands are white -- this makes it very easy to identify the hands and read the time or elapsed time.
The hour and minute hand hour numerals are luminous and the luminousity is good (after seven hours in the dark it is still redable). It is however not easy to orientate the watch in the dark as all the luminous markings are placed symmetrically.
I really like the pointy hands -- they make it possible to read the watch with great accuracy.
The dial and hands look great, but a watch at this price level cannot be cosmetical perfect and the following are some of the points where this is the case:
The movement is a stock ETA 7750 adjusted in four positions. When I got the watch (autumn 2004) it gained between two and three seconds per day, now (summmer 2006) it gains between 0 and 1.4 seconds per day, with an average on 0.5 seconds per day.
I find it hard to set the minute hand correctly, but I suspect is not really a crown/movement problem, but more a consequence of the pointy minutehand and four marks per minute on the dial
This is my daily watch. The functional design with historic roots looks good, the performance is great, and the size fits me perfectly.