Sinn Novelties 2017 pt 2: The EZM 12

Sinn needs no introduction here on worn&wound – we have featured a number of their watches over the years, and they always seem to hit right in the sweet spot of good design, excellent performance, and solid value, all of which makes Sinn a favorite brand among w&w writers and readers alike. Sinn’s Baselworld 2017 lineup is no exception – we covered a few of the highlights yesterday, and now we’ll take a look at what might be the star of bunch: the EZM 12.

Sinn’s EZM line (EZM is short for Einsatzzeitmesser, roughly translated “mission timer”) marks its 20th anniversary this year with a new watch that fits nicely into the mission timer series. The EZM 12 was designed specifically for use by rescue helicopter doctors, and although that seems like an overly-specific group to target, the features designed for that mission make this an interesting and useful watch in any time-critical task. The three major feature areas this watch provides the wearer are: efficient and legible count-down and count-up timers; quick patient pulse monitoring; and a robust, legible, and easily cleaned case.

A second rotating bezel – this one on the outside of the watch – works the other direction, counting down the minutes remaining from the position the bezel it set until the minute hand reaches the big triangle at the bezel’s 0 position. Together, these two bezels allow the wearer to keep track of elapsed or remaining time in a specific task.

The second medical rescue feature of the EZM 12 is probably it’s most visibly unique: the PulsRotor. If you’re familiar with a pulsometer or ‘pulsations dial’ watch, you’ll understand the concept here. The doctor finds the patient’s pulse, starts counting heartbeats when the seconds hand is at 0, and reads the number next to the hand when the heartbeat count reaches 15 beats. The number read is the patient’s bpm, or heartbeats per minute. In most pulsometers, the wearer either activates the second hand by pressing a button or has to wait the remainder of the minute for a running second hand to reach 0.

On the EZM 12, neither of these issues occur, due to a clever and attractive solution called the PulsRotor. Rather than a single center seconds hand, the seconds hand is actually four hands radiating from a center spoke, fashioned to look like the rotor blades of a helicopter. While the hands rotate, the wearer only has to wait a maximum of 15 seconds for the next advancing hand to reach the 0 mark when pulse readings can begin. It’s a clever solution to the pulsometer problem and adds to the watch’s rescue constantly around the dial.

Like all Sinn EZM watches, the EZM 12 is a beast of a watch. The antimagnetic, tegimented steel case is large – 44mm wide, longer lug to lug – and quite heavy; the head alone weighs in at 122 grams (for comparison, a Seiko SKX007 with a jubilee bracelet is about 140 grams). Sinn lightens the overall weight by supplying the watch a rubber strap, but it’s no ordinary strap. Since medical professionals place cleanliness near the top of their list of workplace requirements, Sinn created a clever quick-release hook system for the strap to allow easy removal and cleaning. With the watch off your wrist, you bend the strap down towards the caseback then push the strap outward away from the case, and the end of the strap pops out of the gap between the case and bar. In a similarly easy maneuver, the outer bezel pops off with some levering of the large flat screwdriver on the supplied multitool. Despite its large size the watch wears comfortably and will certainly attract a fair amount of attention.

WatchBuys is currently accepting reservations for the EZM 12 at a price of $3340.