The Sinn 8820 was the first new, mechanical watch I ever purchased. I have, however, sold it in the meantime, but maybe my experience is of value for some of you anyway.

The Sinn 8820 also was (as far as I know) the first titanium watch from Sinn, released shortly after Lothar Schmidt took over the company in 1994 (and not available anymore).Made from titanium, it is unusually light, but it is also surprisingly slim for a dive watch with only 11mm. It is, however, a real diving watch according to ISO 6425 with 20 bar and a proper diving bezel.

Although being a though tool watch, the 8820 is designed to look good: look at these unusual lugs with an integrated bracelet, the rehaut with the numerals and the crown at 4:30. The dive bezel is also kind of integrated into the case. This is for design reasons as well as for a functional purpose: it can only be operated by touching it around the 3 and 9 position, the rest of the (unidirectional) bezel is protected from unintentional operation.

The bracelet of the Sinn 8820 has, of course, an extension, so that you can wear it over the wet suit – or, as I used to do – to wear over the leather jacket when motorbiking. As mentioned before, this is a tool watch with looks, so there is also a sapphire glass back, so that you can see the gold plated rotor of the 2892.

So why did I sell a slim, 20bar, titanium, uncommonly designed diver with a kind of integrated bracelet?
Well, the bracelet is cool, but quite thin compared to the models of today and also the painting of the lume on the indices and the hands is not quite to todays standards. So while it remains a damn cool watch, the wrist time did not justify keeping it and so the Sinn 8820 became the first watch I ever sold.

In retrospect, that was probably a mistake. The Sinn 8820 is quite rare, and when it comes up for sale, the asking price is way above what I got for it a few years ago.

If you now, after reading this, want one: in my eyes, the successor is the Sinn T1. Not quite as slim, but with hardened titanium and other Sinn stuff (i. e. 100 bar!). Maybe the most comfortable and versatile real diver out there.