*Unpolished* 1980 Sinn "Navitimer" Pilot's Chronograph (Ref. 903) Black Dial

Sinn was founded in 1961 by flight instructor and pilot Helmut Sinn under the name ‘Helmut Sinn Spezialuhren’. While a relatively young company, Sinn retains deep roots in aviation and aviation-related timekeeping but has also expanded the brand to offer other functional timepieces and sports watch designs.

We know what you may be thinking, this watch is a Navitimer, but how can it be a Sinn? Well, this particular timepiece, technically known as the ref. 903, has a unique story. The original Navitimer was introduced by Breitling in 1954, as a functional and wearable navigational computer for pilots. This groundbreaking bezel can be used to calculate flight times, distance traveled, airspeed, ascent and descent rates, and fuel-burning rates, and it even has a metric conversion tool. Breitling was at the top of their game in the 50s and 60s with the Navitimer and many other models, though, the 70s told a very different story. As with many other Swiss watchmakers in the 1970s, the Quartz Crisis Breitling hard, and while they didn't shut their doors, in 1979 they did resort to selling off rights to their designs and even parts. Sinn, being a relatively new and also aviation-focused watchmaker, took full advantage, purchasing the rights to the Navitimer design, but not the name, and began producing their own version of the Navitimer under the name "ref. 903" ever since.