Horological Meandering

halgedahl
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A Weekend Challenge (for students of historic calibers, and for those few who really note what they see…)

Recently, Watchbuys—the North Carolina outfit that serves as North American distributor for a number of German mechanical watches (Dornblueth & Sohn, Fortis, Hanhart, and Sinn, to name but a few)—sent out an email announcing a number of Sinn “retirements.” These included the lovely 6110 Classic 4N (steel w/gold hands and numerals on an engine turned, silver/white dial), a model that followed the company’s successful 6100 Regulator—which had immediately attracted my attention, and which many watch sites had reviewed at its debut—with a classic two-hand display (sub seconds).

Sinn 6110 

This got me to thinking about how our community might feel about Sinn products, and I subsequently dug up Pifpaf’s post from July 4, 2011 (“[Basel World] Sinn is not sinful”) as I was looking for opinions about the Frankfurt am Main manufacturer. The Regulator I've mentioned is a handsome (imho) echo of the pocket watch era, its 44mm case large enough to accommodate the elongated numerals that make the dial so memorable, yet not so much so as to be considered unduly profound today, wristwatch sizes having expanded north of 45mm in the past ten years. 

Sinn 6100

But searching 6110, I found P'paf’s post, deep within which are found a few nice photos of the 4N and its brethren: the 6110 Classic B: steel, with silver/white dial and blued hands and numerals; the 6110 Rose Gold: like the 4N, but cased in rose gold; and an 18K cased model with black dial and gold hands and numerals. Absent from those photos is the startlingly different 6110 Technik—a thoroughly modern style in steel, with black dial and large indices—for it is so different as to seem a member of an entirely different tribe.

Not to disparage the watch’s Unitas 6498 heart, 

which is decorated, sports a Glucydur screw balance and a Triovis adjustment system, but P'paf found its finish (I’m putting words in his mouth, here) a tad annoying. Yet he was quick to point out that for the money the assembled combination of elements created a watch that was really quite extraordinary.

What was not discussed was Sinn’s limited edition “Meisterbund” version of the Regulator, which sported a unique hand wound movement by Uhren Werke Dresden, UWD. 

Sinn 6100 Meisterbund

This watch got my blood to pumping. I wanted one of those few (xx / 55), 18K babies (water resistant to 10bar!) having been swept away by the trio of cocks supporting the gear train (another echo of those marvelous pocket watches of the past), the unique shape of which was reinforced by the balance cock, itself. What should we call it—curvilinear trapezoidal? (Quick! Someone with a solid background in geometry chime in to help me here!) But whatever terminology we adopt, that shape stuck in my memory.

Fast forward, as we say, a couple years to the debut of Romain Gautier’s Logical One.

Gautier Logical One

What… a… watch! Just look at that barrel bridge! But wait a minute. Why am I having “deja vu all over again?” OMG! There’s that shape, that something-curved-trapezoid-whatever at each end.

Thus bringing us, my fellow enthusiasts, to my weekend challenge: who can come up with the origins of such a shape in calibers from the past (or at least some other examples with which I ought to be familiar)? My knowledge (and watch caliber photo library) is too quickly exhausted. But there are those of you who have real knowledge. So I’ve high hopes for some interesting responses. I’m interested, as well, in your critical evaluation of the UWK caliber. Perhaps I’m too easily impressed, but I’m rather fond of it. (Never seen it through a loupe, though.) But bottom line… where in history does this shape come into use? 

SO! Let the contest begin! (with great thanks to all, and hopes for a lovely weekend wherever you may be… Fred H.)

Sinn 6110 Meisterbund

N.B. The Meisterbund project is ongoing, now with the 6200 still in production—an 18k palladium-alloyed white gold watch, classic two-hander with sub seconds, powered by UWD 33.1 and reviewed elsewhere here by KMII.

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