What a tool watch should look like
By Sam Okafor, London ยท
Sinn makes design decisions as if someone in the room were holding a stopwatch. The 556 I has a matte black dial, clear white indices, plain hands and a date, all sized for reading quickly rather than for admiring. It's the nearest the watch world has to good industrial signage.
I appreciate this more than I'd expected to. The case is 38.5 mm across and 11 mm thick on 20 mm lugs, compact and neatly shaped, with a sapphire crystal and an open back. 200 m is more water resistance than most people will ever need. Tom would tell you it's plenty for real diving. I'd tell you it means you won't have to think about it in the rain.
Against it: the bracelet is functional rather than lovely, and the polish on the case is perfunctory. It's a watch built by engineers who don't care much how it looks in a shop window. 1,590 to 1,790 dollars for a Sellita automatic with 38 hours is fair, and it's a far more honest purchase than a lot of similarly priced fashion-adjacent watches. Get one if you want one watch for everything and you have no interest in jewellery.