Overview
The Sinn 144 GMT Cargo is a limited edition watch made for the flight-crew of Lufthansa 747 cargo fleet. The watch comes in the Lufthansa brand colors and features a special takeoff weight scale for 747 cargo pilots on the dial. The production run is limited to 747 watches.
The standard Sinn 144 is one of the longest produced and most recognisable Sinn references (along with Sinn 103) dating back to the early days of Helmut Sinn. The Sinn 144 Cargo GMT came on a bracelet and a full set should contain small 747 paperweight as extra swag in addition to the usual Sinn kit.
Basic Information
| Manufacturer | Sinn |
| Reference | 144 |
| Movement | Valjoux 7750 |
| Diameter | 41mm |
| Thickness | 14,5mm |
| Lug to lug | 44mm |
| Lug width | 20mm |
| Material | Stainless Steel |
| Water Resistance | 200 m |
The Dial
The GMT Cargo features a plane shaped GMT hand, bright blue dial and Lufthansa print on the dial. The chronograph seconds, minutes and hour hands are orange. The color scheme is both beautiful and legible in non-lowlight situations. The standard Sinn 144 can come with either tritium or luminova dial depending on the age. However, the GMT Cargo was released after the tritium switch and can be only found with luminova.
The standard Sinn 144 typically features a tachymeter scale on the bezel. Instead, the GMT Cargo features a special scale built for 747-200 pilots. The scale has optimal flight level on the outer circle and gross weight on the inner circle under normal atmospheric conditions. In addition the bottom half of the bezel has the plane model printed. Possibly to remind the flight-crew what they are flying, should they forget.
The Movement
The GMT Cargo is powered by Valjoux 7750 with GMT function. The movement is pleasure to operate. The watch is easy to wind and winding it gives nice feedback. Setting the time is accurate and the 24h hand jumps. The finish of the movement is quite standard Sinn and the rotor of the movement has imprinted “FLIGHTCREW X / 747”.
All in all, the Valjoux 7750 gives the watch a very luxurious feeling, but it suffers from the typical Valjoux 7750 issues. First, typical to the Valjoux 7750, the watch has a very noticeable wobble when the movement freewheels. Second, chronograph takes a bit of force to operate and it makes solid crushes as the chronograph buttons are pressed.
The Case
The Sinn 144 GMT comes typically in titanium case whereas the standard 144 is supplied in a stainless steel case. The 144 GMT Lufthansa Cargo is an exception to this rule, as it has both GMT complication and stainless steel case with a see-through case-back.
The lugs of the case are hidden. This gives interesting options with the straps. The watch will easily take rubber, silicon and mesh in addition to the H-link bracelet. Whereas the blue dial can be challenging with leather straps, I’ve seen the watch look great with blue leather strap with orange accents. Despite the 14,5mm thickness, the watch works well with Nato straps as well. However, one may want to choose a one of the thinner Nato straps to avoid adding excess thickness to the watch.
Serviceability
The best part of Sinn ownership is the excellent serviceability. The movement parts are abundant and Sinn still produces the reference making wearing parts such as crown and chronograph buttons readily available. In my personal experience, Sinn service has been pleasure to deal with, and they typically only insist on fixing what is broken.
Despite Swatch stopping the sales of Valjoux 7750 outside the group, many watchmakers are able to buy still parts and have the skill to service it. There’s no need to send the 144 back to the mothership for every service if the wearable parts are in mechanically good shape. Sinn service is also not the most expensive, but if you have a lot of parts replaced, the bill will be closer to 1000€ than 500€.
Conclusion
The Sinn 144 Cargo GMT is an excellent revision of the Sinn 144 and the blue dial is much more interesting than the black dial variant. The blue dial of Cargo GMT is slightly harder to pair with straps than the standard reference, but because of the blue-orange color scheme it gives more interesting options. Finally, the Sinn 144 is a solid addition to a watch collection. The blue dialed Cargo GMT is a worthy adversary to a modern 144 or a vintage 144 with tritium dial.
Ghost of Gerald Genta 