Frontview

The most special thing, and also the reason why I put both 'toys' together in this review is the similarity of their dials, the wonderful red-white-black color combination and the shape of the hands. A perfect match I would say - just have a look at the pictures below. The 303s black dial is very readable under any light condition and because of its luminous markers, hour and minute hand, also in the dark. The chronograph hands are painted red to seperate them optically from the hour, minute and small second hand. Because of the thin tip of the minute hand and the detailed minute markers the hand can be exactly adjusted. The arrangement of the subdials is standard 7750, small second at nine o'clock, minute totalizer at 12 and hour totalizer at six o'clock with an additional day and date window at three o'clock. The beautiful dial resides under a domed saphire crystal with an antiglare finish on the inside which is very effective.

Backview

The watch has a polished stainless steel case with a brushed bezel, the crown is screw-down and protected by crown guards, the pushers aren't screwable but have protective rings and they are good enough for an impressive water resistance up to two hundred meters even with the display back. My 303 is now equipped with a brushed stainless steel bracelet with polished center links. The links are adjusted with screws instead of split-pins and the clasp is very thick, rugged and can be fine adjusted via push-pins. The brushed clasp with the engraved Sinn 'S' is secured by a flip lock mechanism. On the back of the watch there is some engraving in german saying: Sinn, shockresistant, waterproof 20 bar, antimagnetic, stainless steel and a serial number. The pictures below show both 'drivers toys' with their opened clasps.

Appearance

Some people might call the watch a beefy, chunky piece of steel, but a beefy piece of steel might also be very attractive as the pictures above proove very well. The typical 7750 wobble which is very present at the 303 can also be compared with the wobble you sometimes encounter from the 'boxer' when running at low RPM. With 41.0 mm in diameter and a height of 16.5 mm the drivers chronograph isn't a small watch and more than 160 gr. in weight makes you always feel that you carry a tough watch; I like that.

About Speed

The main feature why Sinn call this watch the drivers chrono is of course the tachymeter scale on the brushed bezel which can be used to measure your speed. Of course nowadays all cars have instruments to determine the speed but its looks very cool doesn't it. The red numbers on the bezel are the speed limits for several tire types (H=210 km/h, V=240 km/h). You may guess now which red number on the left picture matches the tires mounted on the wheels in the right picture.

The Movements

Both of the 'drivers toys' have absolutely unfinished movements but both show off perfect performance, 285 hp on one and +2 sec. a day on the other. As usual there comes the link to Walt Odets' 7750 article on timezone for those who want to know more about the Valjoux movement than: Automatic winding, 44 hour power reserve, 25 jewels, Incabloc shock protection and Nivarox balance spring operating at 28,800 pulsations/hour.

This 303 has two specials: one is the domed saphire display back and the other is the copper sulphate capsule (CuSO4) located at the lug at 7 o'clock. The capsule always comes together with the argon filling which is indicated by the red 'Ar' print on the dial underneath the date window. Argon avoids oxydation and the copper sulphate absorbs moisture which might enter the watch when wearing it in the jacuzzi. The color of the cooper sulphate indicates the amount of water absorbed, if it reaches the maximum capacity it turns deep cyan blue and should then be replaced. A more detailed description can be found in the Sinn 203 review by time2watch. The 'boxer movement' of the 911 also doesn't have any water inside, it's air cooled.

Conclusions

The Sinn 303 drivers chronograph is a very well designed watch, matches perfect with my second favorite 'drivers toy' and most important it is the most rugged watch I can think of. It had gone through two years of abuse know, swimming in the sea or the pool, I've been wearing it in the shower, knocked it accidently on tables, doors and other all days obstacles and it didn't even complain with a single word. Only the shark skin leather strap I bought with the watch initially, looks a bit used after all that and was replaced by the steel bracelet shown in the pictures and the copper sulphate capsule had to be replaced after one and a half year also because it went blue. The watch is comfortable to wear but doesn't fit under all of my shirt cuffs. The watch retails for 1,450.00 DEM with bracelet and I added a display back for 180.00 DEM and the argon option for 260.00 DEM.

This time I'll omit all the 'I am not related to Sinn ...' and 'everything is my personal oppinion ...' phrases and simply finish with the hope that nobody will take my comparisons to the 911 too serious and you enjoyed my little review about two great 'drivers toys'. By the way - if you want to see a picture of the driver wearing his watch you'll only have to click on the last picture below.