Sinn Brings Back The 903, Their Navitimer Lookalike With An Incredible Story; Nomos Celebrates 75 Years Of German Constitution; Elka Introduces Lake Diver; Vertex Marks 80th D-Day Anniversary

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. The story of the Sinn 903 is really a fantastic one. I’ll see if I can dig up more on it for the Patreon article next week. In the mean time, I have to say I really appreciate what Elka has been doing, and a lake diver is a pretty cool move.

In this issue:

• This Is Not A New Navitimer, This Is Sinn Bringing Back The 903, Their Very Familiar Pilot’s Watch With A Pretty Incredible Story

• Nomos Celebrates 75 Years Of The German Constitution With Six New Ludwig Watches

• Elka Introduces New Arinis Collection, A Diver They Would Like You To Wear To The Lake This Summer

• Vertex Marks 80th Anniversary Of D-Day Invasion With New M36 Watch

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 9 seconds

👂What’s new

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This Is Not A New Navitimer, This Is Sinn Bringing Back The 903, Their Very Familiar Pilot’s Watch With A Pretty Incredible Story

The three watches you see in the picture above are not Breitling Navitimers. They are Sinn model 903 and do not make the mistake of looking at them as some sort of Navitimer knockoff. The real story is so much more interesting. Back in the 1970s, the Swiss watch industry was taking a trashing with the skyrocketing of sales of quartz movements. Many major brands didn’t survive this era and Breitling shut down in 1979, with its assets sold off. Two Swiss companies, Sicura and Sinn, bought the rights to the Breitling Navitimer model, while Sinn, Ollech and Wajs and another company bought up cases and dials that Breitling held in stock.

While Sicura continued to produce watches under the Breitling name, owning the rights to the names Breitling and Navitimer, Sinn bought the rights to the Breitling 806 and 809 Navitimer models as well as 500 cases and dials with the intent of making their own pilot’s watch with a logarithmic scale and slide rule function. This gave birth to the Sinn 903 ST B E Navigational Chronograph, a 41mm stainless steel cased pilot watch that reminds us so incredibly of the Breitling. Sinn discontinued the model two years ago and many believed it would return. These hopes were squashed when the model didn’t appear at Watches & Wonders this year. Well, were we all wrong. Sinn just introduced a trio of new 903 models.

The watches all come in the same case, one made out of stainless steel and redesigned from the old 903. It measures 41mm wide, 14,5 mm and I can’t find what the lug-to-lug on the new watch is. I would love to know, as those lugs look like they could be on the long side with their pointy look. The watches get a new silver-electroplated bezel that has a very pronounced coin edge to it. Rotate the outer diameter, and you’ll move the internal bezel that’s protected under the sapphire crystal. The crown screws down and you can get 200 meters of water resistance, which is quite nice for a chronograph without screw down pushers.

The three watches are differentiated with their dial colors. There’s the 903 St II which gets a black dial, the 903 St B E II gets a dark blue dial and the 903 St HB, which is limited to 500 pieces, gets a light blue with a sunburst pattern. All three have the internal bezel which is marked with the slide rule bezel with logarithmic scale that can be used to calculate times, distances or fuel consumption. They also have silver sub-dials in a tri-compax setup, while the hand applied indices, hands and the 12 numeral are made out of hybrid ceramic luminous elements which make up for some great lume shots.

Inside all three watches is the same movement, the La Joux-Perret L110, a column wheel automatic chronograph movement. It beats at 28,800vph and has a 60 hour power reserve. You can choose between a five link bracelet, a leather or a silicone strap.

The new Sinn 903 models are available for pre-order now, with shipping anticipated to begin in August 2024. The 500 pieces limited 903 St HB is priced at €3650 and comes exclusively on the metal bracelet, while the non-limited pieces are priced at €3250 on leather or silicone and €3550 on the bracelet. See more on the Sinn website.

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Nomos Celebrates 75 Years Of The German Constitution With Six New Ludwig Watches

No other thing in our lives finds inspiration in such a broad range as watches. Cars, clothing, even other jewelery, is mostly pretty straightforward and even if it does pay homage to some person or event, it’s a passing curiosity and not a central point of the object. Watches, on the other hand, go hardcore on the homages. Whether it’s a Grand Seiko with it’s odes to nature or if it’s Nomos Glashütte who, with their latest release, pays homage to the Basic Law, or “Grundgesetz”, the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany introduced in 1949. Celebrating the 75th anniversary of German Basic Law is an incredibly thing to celebrate on six limited-edition Ludwig watches, but even if you don’t know anything about the Basic Law (or just aren’t as invested in the celebration) you still get six very minimalist and elegant watches to wear.

Seing as how we are getting six new models, they come in all sorts of sizes. Keep in mind that the Ludwig is the perfect example of what people dislike most about Nomos - their long and curved lugs. So the measurements are completely wild. There’s the 32.8mm wide version which is 6.6 mm thick and has a 42.4mm lug-to-lug; the 35mm is 6.8mm thick and has a 45mm lug-to.lug, while the 37.5mm wide watch gets the same 6.8mm thickness and 47.5mm lug-to-lug. These three are equipped with the manual wind movement. Then there are the three with the neomatik movement, and they measure 36mm wide (7mm thick and 46m l2l), 38.5mm wide (7mm thick, 48.5mm l2l) and 40.5mm wide (7.7mm thick and a 49mm lug-to-lug). All six have 50 meters of water resistance and feature polished cases.

The dials are all very similar. Silver-plated and painted white, they all get narrow black Roman numerals and recessed small seconds sub-dials at 6 o’clock with an elegant snailed background and black markings. The manual version gets a railway track style minute track, while the meomatik has plain markers. Also, the largest of the models gets a date aperture at 3 o’clock, with the dates also rendered in Roman numerals. All six get the addition of the silcrow typographical character (§), black on the manual wind and gold on the automatic, to reference the Basic Law as the silcrow is used to reference a particular section of a document, most often legal documents.

Inside are three different movements. The manual wind ones get the Nomos Alpha calibre which has a 43 hour power reserve, the two smaller neomatik models get the calibre DUW 3001 which gets the same run time, while the largest Neomatik gets the DUW 6101, the first date complication for the Neomatik. The watches come on black horween leather straps.

The Ludwig 75 Jahre Grundegesetz models are limited to 75 pieces each and buyers will get a bound scientific edition of German Basic Law published by the leading scientific and legal publishing house in Germany: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft. Prices are as follows: €1,720 for the hand wound Ludwig 33, €1,860 for the hand wound 35, €2,000 for the hand wound Ludwig 38, €2,880 for the Ludwig neomatik 36, €3,050 for the Ludwig neomatik 39 and, finally, €3,340 for the Ludwig neomatik 41 date. See more on the Nomos website.

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Elka Introduces New Arinis Collection, A Diver They Would Like You To Wear To The Lake This Summer

A dive watch is created with one purpose - to spend its time in water. However, nobody specifies that you have to dive in saltwater. In fact, some of the best dive locations in the world are in freshwater lakes. And yet, nobody makes a lake diving watch. Why would they, after all: a body of water is a body of water. But also, to make a specific lake diver has a certain charm to it. And this is exactly what Elka Watch Co. has just put out, inspired by the historic village of Saint-Blaise on the shores of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, and taking queues from the Celtic and Roman lake-dwelling civilisations that occupied the region dating back to 12,000 BC. This is the Elka Arinis.

The Arinis is a major departure for Elka, who has so far made great flieger and a dress watch, and much more appropriate for a diver. The stainless steel case measures 41mm wide, 11.85mm thick, with a 46.50mm lug-to-lug. On top is a 120-click unidirectional bezel with a ceramic insert that is either blue or black with white C1 or beige Old Radium Super-LumiNova markings. The bezel surrounds a very vintage-looking chevé box sapphire crystal. The crown screws down and you get 200 meters of water resistance.

There are two dial options - a flat black or a sunray finished gradient blue one, but you also get to chose whether you want a date function or not on your watch. It works fantastically on the black dial since it’s color matched and extremely discreet - almost invisible - but it’s way more noticeable on the blue dial where the date wheel is white. The indices are sticks at the 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions, dots for the rest and there’s a triangle at 12 o’clock. The black version indices are filled with Old Radium Super-LumiNova, accented by a white outline, while they are white Super-Luminova on the blue. The hour hand is a stylized leaf shape, while the minute is an arrow hand, which might be a bit confusing as they are similar in length and usually the hour hand is rendered as an arrow. Both are filled with lume.

Inside is the automatic La Joux-Perret calibre G100 which beats at 28,800vph and, despite being an alternative to the ETA 2824 and the Sellita SW200, it has a much more impressive power reserve than the competitors of 68 hours. There a selection of straps you can chose - seven-link grain of rice or Milanese mesh stainless steel bracelets, blue or black tropic rubber, beige nylon NATO or a leather strap.

The Elka Arinis is currently on pre order until June 19, after which the prices will go up. And the prices are CHF 1,695 on the NATO, CHF 1,755 on leather and rubber and CHF 1,795 on one of the two steel bracelets. See more on the Elka website.

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Vertex Marks 80th Anniversary Of D-Day Invasion With New M36 Watch

June 6 will be the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, the beginning of action that ultimately led to the end of World War II. And watch brands are gearing up to mark this occasion. My favorite military re-issue watch brand Praesidus is coming out with something interesting, while the Australian based Bausele is including sand from Normandy. And now, Vertex, the resurrected version of the old Vertex who has made WWII issued military watches, is releasing the M36, a smaller version of the M100 and direct dedication to the military watches issued to British forces in the 1940s.

The M36 is still in preorder and we don’t have all the dimensions, but what we do know is that the case is made out of 316L stainless steel and has a 36m diameter. The watch has downward sloping rounded lugs and a brushed finish with a sloped bezel with no markings. The bezel holds down a box-shaped sapphire crystal and there’s a prominent crown with no guards on the right. Water resistance is 100 meters.

The dial is both a dedicated homage to the old Vertex watches and a stunning piece of modern watchmaking. The dial is matte and black, with a small seconds display at 6 o’clock. But most impressive of are the numerals that are molded out of X1 Super-LumiNova, meaning that they are blocks of lume that glow like crazy. The hands are also completely filled with lume, while the outskirts of the dial have a train track minute scale.

Inside is the Sellita SW261 automatic movement. It’s a small seconds variant of the Sellita SW200 family, meaning it’s reliable and easily servicable, with plenty of parts. It beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch has screw in lug bars and comes with three different ways of wearing it - an expanding metal bracelet, a leather-over-and under strap, and a cotton fabric over-and-under strap.

The Vertex M36 is currently on pre-order and deliveries are expected in June, hopefully before the actual anniversary of D-Day. Price is set at €2.124 without taxes. See more on the Vertex website.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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A review of the Zenith Chronomaster Sport

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Hands on with the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra-Thin Openworked in White Gold

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A review of the IWC Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41

⚙️Watch Worthy

A look at an off beat, less known watch you might actually like

The Robot Aerodynamic, is a charming retro-futuristic titanium timepiece inspired by the Tatra T77, a legendary Czech automobile 

Taking the core design ethos of a car and turning it into a watch sounds like it should be a fairly straightforward task, although tastefully pulling it off is quite a bit harder than you might expect. In my opinion, the most successful efforts are the ones that are immediately apparent to car enthusiasts, yet unrecognizable to those who are unaware of the watch’s automotive-themed design inspiration. The Robot Aerodynamic does an excellent job of simultaneously being unspoken yet obvious. With a smooth rounded profile and arc-shaped cutouts throughout its dial and movement, the overall design of the watch is immediately reminiscent of the vents and streamlined body panels on the Tatra T77. However, even without its automobile-derived concept, the Robot Aerodynamic can easily stand on its own for its unique design and inherently retro-futuristic appearance.

Read the whole review on A Blog To Watch

⏲️Wait a minute

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• I will have to do a top 10 articles of the year list this year just so I can include this piece in it. When Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary made history by reaching the summit, a courier named Ten Tsewang Sherpa ran 200 miles to Kathmandu to deliver the news. He died a few weeks later. His story has never been told—until now.

• The story of Nicholas Rossi is one of the most bizarre and fascinating ones of the past decade. Rossi is a serial rapist wanted by the FBI. Or at least he was, until he died in 2020. However, it turns out he faked his death and was arrested again in Scotland on charges of rape. Only… the person who was obviously Rossi with a horrible costume, sat in a wheelchair and with a ridiculous Scottish accent claimed he wasn’t Rossi, but rather a disabled Scottish academic called Arthur Knight. This kicked off one of the funniest trials I have ever seen, in which the court needed to rule who this man really was.

• A really well put together profile of Vasiliy Lomachenko and what it means to be a boxer at a time your country is at war.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

This is not a riveting video. It’s my friend Mario explaining the lineup of his Marnaut watch brand, designed here in Croatia and made in Germany with Swiss movements. I will be having some news about some Marnaut stuff soon, so here’s a refresher on what the brand is.

💵Pre-loved precision

Buy and sell your watches. Think of this section like old school classifieds - i don’t guarantee anything except that a bunch of people will see your ad and I’ll put the buyer and seller in touch. Want to advertise your watch? Contact us 

• LOOKING TO BUY: Here’s a crazy request. One of you is looking to buy the Ōtsuka Lotēc No. 7.5. Sure, it’s a big ask, but if any of you have one and want to sell, reach out to and I’ll put you in touch

• SOLD: Well, not really new. It’s a great looking mid-90s Tudor Submariner 75090, offered for sale by a member of the It’s About Time reader crew. I love the way it looks and seems to be in great condition. Check it out over on Chrono24.

• LOOKING TO BUY: One of our readers is looking to purchase three very specific watches: an Islander ISL-133 Mother of Pearl, a Sinn 556 Mother of Pearl or a Zelos 300m GMT Mosaic Mother of Pearl. If you’re selling any of these, reach out to us and we’ll put you in touch

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-Vuk