A 1985 Shuttle Watch Gets a Blacked-Out Anniversary Edition
Sinn Spezialuhren has marked its 65th anniversary with a chronograph that looks back to one of the more unusual episodes in the brand's history: a trip to orbit on the wrist of a German physicist. The new 140 A S Anniversary, covered by Gear Patrol's Brad Lanphear, wears a black coating from case to bracelet, limited to 300 numbered pieces, and priced at $6,980 through the retailer WatchBuys.
It is a niche watch from a niche maker, and that is much of the appeal. Sinn builds tool watches for pilots, divers and technical users, and the 140 line is the one that most directly ties the company to spaceflight. This edition is a tribute to that link rather than a replica of it, and the differences between the two are worth understanding before the numbers get argued over on watch forums.
The Spacelab Connection
Reinhard Furrer and the D1 mission
The story starts in 1985. German physicist and astronaut Reinhard Furrer flew as a payload specialist on the D1 Spacelab mission, designated STS-61-A, which launched on October 30, 1985. Gear Patrol describes the flight as a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency. The mission flew aboard the shuttle Challenger, and it was that orbiter's last completed flight; Challenger was lost on its next mission several months later.
Furrer wore a Sinn 140 S automatic chronograph during the mission. Some enthusiast and dealer pages describe the watch with slightly different reference numbers, and they differ on how it came into his hands, so the exact designation of the original is not something every source agrees on. What Gear Patrol and Furrer's biography both support is the core fact: a Sinn 140 S went up with the D1 crew.
The "first automatic chronograph in space" claim
Sinn has long promoted the watch as the first automatic chronograph in space. That claim is disputed. Seiko's 6139 automatic chronograph is generally credited with going up earlier, worn by astronaut William Pogue during the Skylab 4 mission in 1974. Collectors tend to treat the Sinn as the first German-made automatic chronograph to fly, a narrower and safer description than the one on the marketing materials. That nuance does not make the 140 less interesting. It makes it a watch with a documented flight history that happens to have been oversold at times.
A watch that fell out of the conversation
Gear Patrol calls the original a nearly forgotten space watch, and the label fits. Omega's Speedmaster owns the popular memory of watches in space, and the Sinn has never competed with that reputation. Its own movement history did not help. The original 140 ran the Lemania 5100, a movement that has long since been discontinued, which left Sinn without an easy way to keep the watch in production in its original form.
What the 140 A S Anniversary Actually Is
Case, coating and bracelet
The anniversary model uses a 44mm cushion-shaped stainless steel case. The finish is a DLC coating applied over Sinn's Tegiment surface-hardening treatment, which Gear Patrol says gives the watch extraordinary scratch resistance. The bracelet gets the same treatment, so the watch is black from lug to clasp. Water resistance is rated to 100 meters. A retailer listing for the reference, 140.050, puts the case thickness at 15.50mm, though that figure comes from a dealer spec sheet and not from Sinn.
Along with the bracelet, the watch comes with a black leather strap with yellow padding. The yellow is deliberate: it replaces the red that Sinn normally uses for chronograph hand accents on its standard models, and it ties the strap to the rest of the anniversary design.
Dial and chronograph layout
The dial is black with silver subdials and white-on-black markings for contrast. The hour and minute hands, the hour track and the pip on the bezel use green-emitting lume. A winged orange central hand reads elapsed minutes off the 60-minute track, while a second orange hand tracks elapsed seconds. A totalizer at 6:00 counts up to 12 hours, and the running seconds sit at 9:00.
This layout is not a copy of Furrer's watch. Gear Patrol notes that the anniversary model keeps the cushion case, black finish and internal rotating bezel of the flown watch but uses a different dial arrangement. The all-black dial of Furrer's 140 has carried over to the brand's regular production 140 St S, which is the closest thing in the current catalog to the original's look.
The internal bezel
The bezel is an internal, bidirectional rotating ring with a 60-minute countdown track, and it is operated by a crown at 10:00. Keeping the bezel inside the case rather than on the outside is a Sinn habit on its pilot chronographs, and it makes sense on a watch built for work: nothing sticks out to get knocked out of position, and a countdown can be set with gloves on.
The Movement
Inside is Sinn's Caliber SZ-01, an automatic that beats at 4Hz and carries a 42-hour power reserve. Gear Patrol reports that Sinn developed the SZ-01 to mimic the performance of the Lemania 5100 that powered the original, which gives the anniversary model a mechanical link to the flown watch even if the architecture is different. Sinn says the movement uses its Ar-Dehumidification system and a proprietary lubricant, and that it operates down to -45 degrees Celsius.
That low-temperature figure is the sort of spec Sinn likes to publish. It does not matter to someone wearing the watch to the office, but it fits a company whose reputation rests on equipment that can take abuse. One caveat: a retailer page describes the SZ-01 as being based on an ETA 7750, while Gear Patrol does not discuss its origins, so the exact lineage of the movement should be confirmed with Sinn or an authorized dealer before it goes into a buying decision.
The Caseback and the Edition
The screw-on caseback carries an etching commemorating the D1 Spacelab mission. It reads "Erste Deutsche Spacelab Mission" and "The Automatic Chronograph in Space." Each of the 300 watches is numbered on the caseback. The edition celebrates 65 years of the company, and the space-mission engraving gives it a story that most anniversary watches lack.
The price of $6,980 at WatchBuys is the only figure the reporting provides, and no official Sinn retail price turned up in research. Sinn's earlier limited runs give some context. The 144 St S Anniversary II, made for the company's 60th anniversary in an edition of 600, was priced at $3,470, as Gear Patrol reported in a separate piece. The 2013 version of the 140 A, which a dealer listing places at 500 pieces, has appeared on the secondhand market in the low-to-mid four figures. The new edition is clearly a step up in both exclusivity and cost.
Where It Fits
Against the usual space watches
At just under seven thousand dollars, the 140 A S Anniversary sits in territory occupied by far better known names. A buyer after a space-flown pedigree can get a modern Speedmaster for less, and a buyer after a black tool chronograph has plenty of options. What the Sinn offers is a different proposition: a specific mission, a specific astronaut, and a coating system that makes the case and bracelet far harder to mark than a standard steel watch.
Who it suits
This is a watch for someone who wears a chronograph and actually uses it, and who would rather have an obscure piece of aerospace history than a famous one. The 44mm case is large, and the all-black finish with orange hands and yellow accents will not blend into a suit sleeve, so it is more likely to live on the leather strap with casual clothes or on the bracelet as a daily beater that does not show wear. Collectors who care about the historical connection should note the dial is not a replica, and anyone wanting the closest match to Furrer's watch might look at the regular 140 St S instead.
With only 300 numbered pieces, availability will likely be limited, and interested buyers should check with WatchBuys or another authorized Sinn dealer for current stock.
