Nuun Official CT N200 Sinopia Storm Review

A few months ago we had the pleasure to review the The Wrong Wrist Edition V2 from Nuun Official. The watch was a collaboration between our good friend Omar Traboulsi (@thewrongwrist) and Nuun Official. The Wrong Wrist Edition V2 featured a carbon case infused with Super-Luminova which made the whole watch glow in low light and under UV light. We were very impressed with the watch and it was a great introduction to Nuun Official.

Recently Nuun Official released another watch that really caught my attention. In general I'm not a huge fan of tradition case materials like stainless steel and tend to skew towards ceramic, carbon and titanium for my personal watches. Another thing that truly excites me in watchmaking is the use of new materials. For this new release, Nuun Official has used both titanium and a new material, but before we get more into the watch, let's first go over the history of the brand.



Nuun Official is a relatively new brand only being founded in the last few years. The brand does have the distinction of being the first watch brand from the Middle East. Nuun Official is based out of Bahrain where each watch is assembled, regulated and tested. All Nuun Official watches are also designed in-house in Bahrain. Nuun Official watches are designed to be tough and can be worn in pretty much any situation. In a short time period the brand has grown and is now available in 64 countries and has over 20 points of sale.

Nuun Official uses such high tech materials are titanium and Carbon X for their watches. Carbon X is used mostly in high-performance industries as racing and aerospace. The base of the material is carbon graphite which holds up much better over time when compared to standard carbon fiber. Besides using innovative materials, Nuun Officials also stays true to their roots by offering many of their watches with Eastern Arabic numerals on the dial.

Initial Thoughts

Having gone over the history of Nuun Official, let's now take a look at the CT N200 Sinopia Storm. When the watch arrived the first thing I noticed was the just mind-blowing crystallized titanium dial. A unique process is applied to the titanium dial that enlarges the natural crystalline structure of the titanium. This gives the dial a truly one of a kind look like large flakes of titanium which range in color from light silver to dark grey. It's not a finish I've seen before and I really love the look of it.



The next thing I noticed was the titanium coated 316L stainless steel case. The titanium coating gives the watch a matte gun metal color that is unlike any other titanium cased watch I've seen. I'm not sure if this color and finish could have been achieved with solid titanium, but it truly in an interesting finish.

The last thing I took note of during my initial time with the Sinopia Storm were the orange Eastern Arabic numerals used for the hour markers and date window. Eastern Arabic dials are still new to me and the only other watch I've spent much time with featuring such a dial was The Wrong Wrist Edition V2. The orange Super-Luminova covered numerals match perfectly with the orange strap and I'm also just a sucker for orange. When hit with UV light the numerals also glow an otherworldly bright orange.



Technical Specifications

Now that we've gone over my initial impressions of the Nuun Official CT N200 Sinopia Storm, let's now go over the technical specifications of the watch. The watch is crafted out of 316L stainless steel with a matte titanium coating. The Sinopia Storm has a case diameter of 41.1 mm and a lug to lug length of 47 mm. The watch weighs in at just 96 grams on the orange rubber strap and at its thickest point is 12.6 mm.

The Sinopia Storm uses a slightly domed sapphire crystal that has an anti-reflective coating applied to it. The dome is very subtle and you really have to run your finger over the crystal to feel it. Underneath the crystal clear sapphire is the crystallized titanium dial. Not only is the dial stunning to look at and shows the unique structure of the titanium, but it also provides a high contrast base for the orange markings on the dial. In direct sunlight the dial will actually sparkle which is caused by the light reflecting off of the crystallized titanium.



The Sinopia Storm uses applied Eastern Arabic numerals for every hour marker except three which is replaced by a dial matching date window. The date is also displayed in Eastern Arabic, which is a little harder for me to figure out than then obvious hour markers. The hour markers have orange Super-Luminova applied to them and in normal lighting appear orange and under UV light glow extremely bright orange.

Nuun Official uses satin finished hands for the hour, minute and seconds hands. The hour and minute hands have an alternating pattern of orange and silver which almost give the hands a maritime appearance. The running seconds hand also features an orange lumed tip. The Nuun Official logo is found at 12 o'clock and "Automatic Water Resistant 100m / 328ft" is printed at 6, with "Automatic" being in orange. Finishing off the dial is a dark grey minute track made out of dots for each hour and lines filling in the space between the dots around the outside of the dial.



The Sinopia Storm is not a traditional dive watch and as such does not have a rotating bezel. Instead it has a static bezel with a dive scale on it. 0 through 15 are made up of a series of small bars for each minute with 0 being a dot and 5, 10 and 15 being done in larger stick markers. Eastern Arabic numerals are used for 20, 30, 40 and 50 with 25, 35, 45 and 55 being represented by stick markers. The bezel is cut out around these markers which are subtle and the same color as the titanium coated case.

The entirety of the case has a matte bead-blasted appearance to it. I personally love this look on a watch and it really helps you focus more on the dial than the case of the watch. The case features flares on each side which when measured across is 42.4 mm. When looking at the profile of the case you can see a slight downturn to the lugs which help the watch form better to your wrist. This view also shows the three part construction to the case.



The right hand side of the case features a screw down crown nicely surrounded by one of the case flanks which serves as crown guards. The crown is nicely scalloped and features the Nuun Official logo on top of it. Un-screwing the crown allows you to manually wind the automatic movement in the resting position. Pulling the crown out to position one lets you set the Eastern Arabic date and pulling the crown out to position two stops the seconds hand and lets you set the time. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minute hand and screwing the crown back in doesn't require much effort to get the crown to catch and screw down.

The Sinopia Storm has a standard lug width of 20 mm and can accept literally 1000s of aftermarket straps since 20 mm is the most universal strap size. The watch comes on an extremely supple orange caoutchouc rubber strap which tapers down from 20 mm at the lugs to 17.5 mm at the titanium coated pin buckle. There is also a large Nuun Official branded titanium coated strap retainer near the buckle as well. The back of the strap also has the "ND Limits" no decompression limits scale printed on it from 12 to 45 meters with its corresponding time.



Flipping the watch over shows off the screw down display case back and has the watches specs engraved along the bezel of the case back. One interesting thing to note here is that the case back says the watch is water resistant to 200 meters while the dial says 100 meters. Nuun's site also says 200 meters, so I'd wager the watch is good to 200 meters especially with the screw down crown and the inclusion of the ND Limits scale. Either way, nobody but professional divers are taking their watches below 100 meters and even 100 meters of water resistance is just fine for normal scuba diving.

The Sinopia Storm is powered by a Japanese made Seiko NH35A automatic movement. The movement is topped off with a black bi-directional winding rotor with red Nuun Official branding. Being more of a tool watch the finishing on the movement is minimal but there is a nice view of the balance beating away. The NH35A runs at 21,600 bph (3Hz) and offers 41 hours of power reserve. Seiko quotes an accuracy of -20 to +40 seconds per day for the NH35A. On our timegrapher the movement showed an accuracy of -5 seconds per day when averaged out over several positions. This is more than accurate enough for us and really falls in line with the results we see from much more expensive movements.



On The Wrist

Typically I prefer a lug to lug length of over 50 mm for my personal watches, which is a bit longer than the 47 mm seen on the Sinopia Storm. Having worn the watch for a few days straight on a trip to the beach I started to realize that this size is actually great when doing more strenuous activities than going out for drinks and dinner or running errands. The watch still visually looks small to me when looking at my wrist, but wearing the watch was a pleasure.

At just 96 grams the Sinopia Storm disappears on the wrist and never became a burden wearing it. Like I just mentioned we took the watch with us on an extended stay at the coast. During the 8 hours of driving the watch never caused any wrist fatigue and easily passed my legibility test of being able to tell the time at a glance while driving. Telling the date was pretty much impossible for me, since I have no knowledge of Eastern Arabic numerals, I did take the time learn the correct character for the current date when I set the watch before we left though.



The weather was warm and humid at the coast and the rubber strap kept the watch comfortable at all times. The strap has a ton of pin holes so even if your wrist swells there will be close enough setting on the strap to maintain comfort and tightness. The strap is also very long meaning that if you happen to be wearing a wet suit, the strap should be able to accommodate it.

I did take the watch is both the ocean and the pool and it performed perfectly. Of course I didn't take the watch deeper than a few feet, but no water ingress was noticed. After going in the pool or the ocean I did soak the watch in a cup of tap water after rinsing it off. Underwater the dial was also extremely legible. With the grey and orange aesthetic I can really see the Sinopia Storm being a perfect summer watch as the weather starts to warm up.



The watch fit in well with my beach ware as well as my typical casual dress of a t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. Apart from the trip to the coast I also wore the watch around town running errands and going out to dinner and drinks. The Sinopia Storm performed excellent and does make a great daily companion. The watch is a bit loud having a matte grey case, sparkling crystallized titanium dial and a bright orange rubber strap though, so it might not be the best watch if your daily watch needs to be more understated.

As would be expected, the CT N200 Sinopia Storm got the attention of a lot of eyes when wearing it out. We live in an area with a ton of stainless steel Rolex sports models, so it really takes wearing something a bit different to get noticed than a standard sports watch. The Sinopia Storm is a watch that gets noticed on wrist and I had a few people come up and ask me about the watch. I showed a few of my friends the watch when out as well. Everyone just loved the crystallized titanium dial as well as the case finishing. Also being in Austin, people just loved the orange color which is pretty much the official color of Austin. Everyone was also blown away by the price of the Sinopia Storm.



Value and Position in the Market

Speaking of price, the Nuun Official CT N200 Sinopia Storm retails for just $823. For that price you're getting a great looking all around sports watch with a unique titanium coating on the case, a reliable workhorse Seiko movement and a new material in the crystallized titanium dial. Now would be a good time to take a look at some other watches with similar specs and see how the Sinopia Storm fairs in term of value and features.

First up we have the RZE Endeavour in medallion yellow which is crafted out of titanium and has a case diameter of 40.5 mm. The RZE is a more traditional diver with a rotating dive bezel and dive watch design cues. The watch does feature a bold yellow dial, but isn't as interesting as the crystallized carbon seen on the Sinopia Storm. The RZE also uses a Seiko made automatic movement and offers the same 200 meters of water resistance. The Endeavour is a bit less expensive than the Sinopia Storm at $599.



Next up is the Circula ProTrail Sand which has a 40mm stainless steel case that is hardness treated and has near titanium levels of scratch resistance. This treatment also gives the ProTrail's case a unique look to it similar to the Sinopia Storm. The watch has 150 meters of water resistance and is powered by an off the shelf Sellita SW 200-1 movement with 38 hours of power reserve. The sand colored dial is visually interesting, but once again not as much as the crystallized titanium. The ProTrail is a bit more expensive than the Sinopia Storm at $989.

Moving on we have the Spearfish GMT Meteorite from Zelos which is crafted out of stainless steel and has a case diameter of 40 mm. Like the Circula the case is hardened coated providing excellent protection to the case from scratches. The Spearfish has a water resistance of 200 meters and runs on a Sellita movement like the Circula. The Spearfish also offers the additional functionality of a GMT complication. The watch features a meteorite dial which makes for a very visually interesting dial like that on the Sinopia Storm. The Zelos does retail for a bit more at $1,099.



Finally we have the Odyssey Ember from Boldr which is crafted out of titanium with a hardened coating and a 40 mm case diameter. The watch offers 300 meters of water resistance and runs on a Miyota movement with GMT functionality. The Odyssey has a very unique case design and also features a partially skeletonized dial that isn't quite as interesting as the one found on the Sinopia Storm. The Odyssey is around the same price as the Sinopia Storm at $799.

Looking at the four watches we compared to the CT N200 Sinopia Storm, you can see that the watch falls right in the middle of pricing with very similar features and specs to the other watches. The Sinopia Storm does offer the very unique uses of a crystallized titanium dial and Eastern Arabic numerals though. While many of these watches are dedicated dive watches, the Sinopia Storm is more of an everyday sports watch which can still go diving.



Closing Thoughts

In the end is the Nuun Official CT N200 Sinopia Storm for me? I'd say it really is. While the watch has a slightly smaller than 50 mm lug to lug length I did really enjoy wearing it for extended periods on our trip to the coast. The hue and finish of the titanium coated case gives the watch a unique look and at 96 grams the watch doesn't have a weight penalty for having a stainless steel base case. The real star of the show for me is the stunning crystallized titanium dial and orange Eastern Arabic numerals. Together they just create a one of a kind dial that I can't really compare to anything else. The rubber strap in orange is a personal plus for me and the strap is also extremely comfortable and required zero break in. Come summer time, I could see myself wearing this watch a ton, especially in the pool or at the beach.

So would I recommend this watch to somebody else looking for a slightly off the beaten path sports watch? I really would, at $823 you really can't go wrong with it. The movement is extremely reliable and can be serviced by just about any local watchmaker. Nuun Official does take some design cues from popular sports watches of the 1970s, so the case shape is very easy to get used to as well. The watch is very comfortable and lightweight and the unique case finish and out of this world dial are well worth the price of admission. With 200 meters of water resistance and a tough titanium coated case, the watch is really a great GADA (Go Anywhere Do Anything) watch as well. Nuun is only doing a limited run of the CT N200 Sinopia Storm, so if the watch interests you, please make sure you look into it sooner than later. I have had many people message me asking about how to purchase the Nuun Official The Wrong Wrist Edition V2 after reading my review and seeing my posts about it on Instagram and unfortunately that watch is long sold out.



I would really like to thank Nuun Official for sending us the Sinopia Storm to review. It is a great watch and has already served as an amazing travel companion for me. I'm really hoping the experience Nuun Official had with crystallized titanium was a good one and personally would love to see them use the material to form a full case out of. I couldn’t imagine how crazy a full crystallized titanium watch would look.

For more information about the CT N200 Sinopia Storm please visit : Nuun Official

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: CT N200

Retail Price: $823

Case Size: 41.1 mm

Lug to Lug: 47 mm

Thickness: 12.6 mm

Weight: 96 Grams

Case Material: 316L Stainless Steel with a Titanium Coating

Bezel: 316L Stainless Steel with a Titanium Coating

Strap: Orange Rubber Strap with a Pin Buckle

Movement: Seiko NH35A Japanese Made Automatic

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Date

Power Reserve: 41 Hours

Water Resistance: 200 Meters