Sinn builds the 556 like a cockpit instrument and finishes it like one too, all restraint and zero decoration. Two new limited editions break that habit in exactly one place. Hands, indices, minute track and even the Sinn logo go green on one watch and orange on the other, over the same silver dial.
Both editions mark 25 years of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Sinn and the newspaper have produced watch editions together for years. This round is the Sinn 556 I FAZ II, and production stops at 100 pieces per color.
An earlier FAZ edition already ran through the 556 line, so the II in the name is a sequel, not a debut. Frankfurt readers treat these like house merchandise with a movement inside. Everyone else gets a tool watch with a story most brands couldn’t invent.
Price: $2,370
Where to buy: WatchBuys
Green or orange, and nothing else changes
Color is the whole split between the two editions. Each dial is silver electroplated, and each carries its accent color everywhere a mark appears. Hands match indices, indices match the minute track, and the script logo follows along.
Minute markers sit further in than on a standard 556 I. Sinn pulled them off the dial edge and lined them up with the center of each hour marker. Legibility stays pure 556, though the read is tighter and cleaner for it.
Silver is doing work here too. Sinn ties the pale dial to the anniversary itself, and it reads like newsprint under the color. Black-dial 556 owners will find the inversion strange at first. It works because everything else stays put.
An F where the 1 should be
Date placement moved as well. A standard 556 runs its window at 3 o’clock, and these editions put it at 6, centered under the dial. Symmetry improves, and the window carries a trick of its own.
On the first of the month, the window shows an F instead of a 1. It’s the F from the FAZ name, set into the date wheel itself. Small detail, zero function, and it’s the one detail owners will show people first.
Flip either watch over and the newspaper shows up again. Sapphire in the case back frames the rotor, and that rotor carries an engraved Kluger Kopf, the Bright Mind head from the FAZ advertising campaign. Each rotor also carries that watch’s own number in the 100-piece run.
Pure Sinn underneath
Case dimensions read like a daily-wear checklist. Satinized stainless steel, 38.5mm across, 11mm thick and 45.5mm from lug to lug, with the head alone at 65 grams. Sapphire sits on both sides, the crown screws down, and water resistance runs to 200 meters.
Sellita’s SW200-1 handles the time inside. Sinn has run this automatic across the 556 line for years, and it still fits the brief. Frequency is 28,800 beats per hour on 26 jewels, the seconds hand hacks for exact setting, and magnetic protection meets the DIN 8309 standard.
Lineage explains the restraint. Sinn drew the 556 series from its NaBo cockpit clocks, the navigation instruments it built for aircraft panels. I in the name stands for indices, since the dial carries no numerals at all. Nothing about the FAZ editions messes with that formula.
Worn daily, the numbers land well. Eleven millimeters slides under a cuff, 65 grams disappears by lunch, and low pressure resistance covers the cabin-altitude swings the NaBo clocks were built for. A 20mm lug width also opens the entire aftermarket strap catalog.
Crystal treatment matches the brief. Front sapphire is anti-reflective on both sides, so the silver dial stays readable at glancing angles. Glare would wash the pale dial out fast, and Sinn clearly knew it.
| Case | 38.5mm satinized stainless steel, 11mm thick |
| Movement | Sellita SW200-1 automatic, 26 jewels |
| Crystal | Sapphire front and case back |
| Water resistance | 200 meters |
| Production | 100 pieces per colorway |
Indices and hands carry luminescent coating, so the color swap costs nothing after dark. Green and orange both read cyan in the dark, like every other 556. Sinn kept the night side of the watch completely standard.
Two straps in the box
Each edition ships in a presentation case with two straps, a strap tool and spare spring bars. Green comes fitted on grey canvas with a green Alcantara strap in reserve. Orange comes fitted on grey Alcantara with an orange textile strap alongside.
That second strap does real work. On grey, the color stays on the dial where Sinn put it, and the watch passes as a sober daily piece. Swap to the matched strap and the whole watch becomes the colorway, loud enough to start conversations.
Price: $2,370
Where to buy: WatchBuys
Buying through WatchBuys carries the full distributor setup. Each watch registers by serial number for Sinn’s two-year manufacturer warranty, and US buyers can use WatchBuys’ stateside authorized service centers instead of shipping a watch to Germany. Grey market sourcing skips all of that.
Reservations are open at WatchBuys, Sinn’s official North American distributor, at $2,370 for either color. Two hundred watches total, split evenly, and the run is the run. Collectors who want color without giving up the 556’s instrument manners should move now, since 100 pieces of anything from Frankfurt goes fast.
