The nicest re-issue of the year already? Sinn 158 is here.

Sinn opens 2020 strongly with the release of the Sinn 158. Few watches are as well liked as the chronographs that were used by the German armed forces Bundeswehr. A chronograph model known as Heuer 1550 SG. The founder of the German watch manufacturer Sinn, Helmut Sinn, bought up stock from the production of the Bundeswehr chronographs and produced an own variant which then as the Sinn 155 Bw. This happened in two rounds, both in limited editions. The first in 2005 and the second in 2008. Now they are launching the successor Sinn 158.

The new version, Sinn 158 is true to type and thereby a fairly well-grown piece with its 43 mm large case. To this they have added a domed acrylic crystal and a bezel of anodised aluminium. The movement is an automatic SW510 movement from Sellita with date display at 6 o'clock. Both the indexes and the hour and minute hands have luminova and the chronograph's seconds and minute hands are red.

All in all they have, in our opinion, succeeded with a nice re-issue of a real classic. That it copes with a pressure of 10 bar also makes it clearly swimmable.

The Sinn 158 is limited to 500 examples and the first examples have already begun to be delivered to customers. So also in Sweden. According to Richard Dahlgren at Erikson Urhandel, Sweden's only authorised retailer for Sinn the first examples have already been sold.

– The first example are delivered this week, Richard tells us. And there are bound to be more examples. There are quite a lot who have got in touch and placed orders.

Here at EqoTime we have a little soft spot for Sinn and our verdict is that the Sinn 158 is not only handsome but also feels reasonably priced with its Swedish list price of 27 500 kr.

A big plus from our horizon is that they have skipped the fake patina that otherwise tends to be popular when it comes to re-issues. Instead Sinn seems to have succeeded with a nice upgrade of a model that was at least as nice from the start.