Sinn Watches

If I were in the market for a brand new watch I have to say Sinn would be about top of my list.

Well... yes and no T. Breitling's setup was different to the Longines version and the Longines setup was different enough to earlier types like the Breitling to be granted the patent for the layout fitted to watches from the 30's down to today.

Oh jaysus T, no insult at all felt, nor expected.

I 100% agree with you T that Breitling were major innovators in wrist chronographs. During the first world war they were the first to add a button separate to the winding crown to start/stop the chronograph*. Previously the action was all in the crown to start, stop and reset which is what Longines, Zenith and others used. They were also the first to remove the winding crown from the proceedings entirely by adding the second button.

Well... again yes and no. Yes on the second claim, but on the first maybe not. While Breitling did bring out a watch with the start/stop button they weren't the only ones out at the time. Gallet was another.

Now we get to the flyback function. That is while the chronograph is running it can be stopped and reset to zero and continue running and measuring a new time period from zero by hitting one button. The Breitling chronos didn't have to be stopped and then reset to be started again, but it seems they didn't return to zero. From their own history which I had knocking about;

In 1915, Breitling heralded the emergence of the wrist chronograph by inventing the first independent chronograph pushpiece. In 1923, the firm perfected this system by separating the stop/start functions from that of resetting. This patented innovation thereby made it possible to add several successive times without returning the hands to zero – which proved extremely useful both for timing sports competitions and for calculating flight times."

Now Breitling held a load of patents for chronographs(and other innovations), but that specific function they clearly didn't as Longines nor anybody else could have patented over an existing patent.

The problem these days with a lot of this who innovated what is the century of Swiss marketing BS that has been left to us and ramped up over the last couple of decades and there's a helluva lot of dodgy info out there. Wikipedia and forums and outlets like Hodinkee often support the dodgy info. At one time Rolex's wiki was a joke where it seemed they invented everything of note in the wristwatch(and many forums and youtubers seem still convinced of this). Girard Perregaux claim the first male wristwatch and a military one no less in the 1880's and there's zero evidence for it and I suspect it goes back to a forum post in the late 90's by a well respected "expert" and dealer. Cartier jump into the first wristwatch arena too with their story of the Santos, yet not a single example of one exists before circa 1920. Never mind that Omega had advertised wristwatches in 1908(or 6?) and wristlets are mentioned as far back as the Boer war. Unless new evidence comes to light Omega were the first to specifically release them under their own name and specifically men's watches.

So over the years I've learned to take any marques claims with a pinch of salt unless they can be independently verified. If I see a video of a Breitling from the 20's where the the hand resets to zero and continues running I'll be convinced. I have seen videos of the Longines examples from the 30's doing precisely that(I've even held one in my trembling hands ). That and their patent would seem to seal the deal for them and the flyback. As things currently stand.





*in a wristwatch. That had been in pocket watches since the mid 1800's

All I got was an effin gas bill.