Sinn U2-S Construction & PVD test

[krstin]

Jedan zanimljiv test za sve ljubitelje Sinn-a, preuzeto sa WUS foruma, od korisnika "energyarts".

I took my Sinn U2-S to my friends laboratory to be tested for it's anti magnetic properties and actual hardness of the watch.

What does my friends laboratory do? Well, they harden XXXXXXXX parts to XXXXX Specs.

I wanted to see how durable the construction of this watch actually was and if everything that Sinn says holds up.

CLAIMS BY SINN

1. Sinn claims that Sinn U2-S features a completely Tegimented case, bezel, crown and case back.

Standard steel used by most watch companies has a hardness of between 200 and 240 HV (side note# 200 & 240 HV is considered very soft by metal hardness standards, and the term they use is called "off scale" which means that 316L by nature is considered a very soft material, the only material that we know that is used by watch makers is Titanium which is a very hard material with around 800-1000 HV & 45% lighter than steel without any additional tegimented process), keep in mind that we are talking about surface hardness in here, and glass (around 900 HV) has also a higher surface hardness than 316L steel, that is why is so easy to damage and scratch s-steel watches, but is very easy to work with and very inexpensive at less than $1.00 US per pound, compared to the Ti which is at $40.00 per pound, that is why they use s-steel.

The tegiment layer on this watch in combination with the PVD coating has a hardness in excess of 2,000 HV Vickers which is more than nine times harder than standard steel.

2. The tegimenting process also acts to harden the black PVD treatment on the case.

3. This submarine steel is not only extraordinarily sea water resistant (PRE value up to 38), it also possesses the highest anti-magnetic quality.


MY TESTING SHOWS THE FOLLOWING

1. The whole watch is tegimented to around 2349.8 HK or 2478 HV (vickers).
The Crystal on the watch is by nature around 1000 HV which is considered very hard surface by metal standards, and this one showed a hardness of around 1138 HV so no special treatment, but don't forget that it is very very hard at that number.

2. This is where it gets a little funny, from my test it shows that the actual case was tegimented and only afterwards it was PVD'd, which means that the PVD layer was not tegimented. The PVD layer showed a hardness of around 328 HV. ("correcting my self"maybe it was tegimented but only at around 328 HV and not at over 2000 HV).

3. This is my favorite part, the Steel on the watch it is indeed very special and it possesses the highest anti-magnetic quality. It is a mix of metals, it looked amazing under the microscope (very dense, almost one piece together,"intermolecular bonds"), even my friend which did the testing was very impressed with it. The only way to find the other materials that were used was to actually cut the watch.........but don't worry of course we didn't do that.

4. It gets even better, we did put the watch on a machine which bombarded (scanned) the metal with lasers to find any air pockets or gaps on the metal itself (speaking in the microscopic language). I was amazed by the results, we looked at each other and moved our heads in AWWWW..superb quality.
This watch is tight, tight, tight, it's extremely aligned.

All i can say is that the PVD will scratch hardness is soft (keep in mind that this is not your average PVD coating on a watch), but it is very thick so no worries about the actual metal coming out and shine in your face.
Quality, quality, quality...the watch is superb one of the highest engineered timepiece as far as i am concerned, and keep in mind that i have and had other more expensive fancy brand names timepieces.

Note: Ceramics have a hardness of around 1000–1500 HK or 1100-1600 HV, and Carbides are over 2000 HK or around 2200 HV.

Note: My personal take on the PVD is that if they tried the tegimenting (2000+HV) process on top of the PVD than the actual color of it would be gray instead of the black one that is on the watch, but again the hardness of the PVD is still more than your 316L stainless steel.

LINK

[pantelija]

Merne jedinice su jedno, zveknuti sat o štok i skinuti sloj PVD premaza je drugo. Brojke u Vikerima su za sajmove i brošure, ono što čitam po forumima je da ljudi imaju podeljenja iskustva sa postojanošću PVD premaza u praksi.