German silver navy observation pocket watch Circa 1990

Very rare anchor chronometer watch

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A very rare Kriegsmarine observation watch with anchor chronometer escapement, made by Helmut Sin in Frankfurt, Germany, circa 1990. This watch features a silver case, glazed on both sides, with a coin shaped bezel and its silvered dial features an outer minute and hour track with Arabic hour numerals, a subsidiary seconds dial at 6 o’clock and steel hands. The movement was manufactured by Laco in Pforzheim, Germany, circa 1945 and is equipped with an anchor chronometer escapement, gold wheels, a fine adjustment and 21 stones.
The dial and movement are signed.
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Diameter: 60 mm
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Weight: 215 g
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Signed: Laco KM
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The pilot’s watch presented here is extremely rare. Laco manufactured these movements in 1945 for the German Kriegsmarine (KM). However, they watches were never used due to the end of the war. Around 1990, the Sinn company fitted some of the remaining Laco movements into silver cases, presumably about 10 pieces. This is one of these extremely rare and historically interesting pilot’s watches.
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Sinn
Helmut Sinn was a watchmaker in Germany and he specifically focused on pocket watches, later in his career. However, he is far more legendary for founding Sinn Spezialuhren in Frankfurt, Germany, which focused primarily on wristwatches, mechanical pilot chronographs and cockpit clocks.

In 1994, at nearly 80 years old, Helmut Sinn sold his original company to Lothar Schmidt, a former engineer from IWC. He quickly realized that standard retirement did not suit him and acquired Guinand (1995/1996), buying the majority shares of Guinand S.A., a historic Swiss watchmaking firm that had previously supplied contract work and components for Sinn’s early chronographs.
Sinn officially stepped away from day to day operations in 2006 at the age of 90, passing management over to his trusted employee Horst Hassler. In 2015, Guinand was sold to watch enthusiast and engineer Matthias Klüh, who continues to run the brand in Frankfurt today.

Helmut Sinn passed away in 2018 at 101 years old. Both of his business creations – Sinn Spezialuhren and Guinand – continue to operate successfully out of Frankfurt, maintaining his original philosophy of uncompromised, functional tool watches.
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Laco
Laco was a pocket watchmaker founded in 1925 in Pforzheim, Germany, by Frieda Lacher and Ludwig Hummel. Laco (originally Lacher & Co.) gained substantial fame in the 1940’s for producing precision Marine pocket watches for the German Navy (Kriegsmarine). These pocket watches featured distinct high visibility elements, such as matte black Arabic numerals and a railway themed minute circle, to help sailors calculate distances independently of landmarks.

The company still operates under the official name Laco Uhrenmanufaktur GmbH and is headquartered in Pforzheim, Germany, where it was originally founded over a century ago. Today, Laco remains an independent, highly regarded German watch brand specializing in high quality mechanical timepieces.