Leica are known for the quality of their cameras so the brand’s first watches had to be more than the usual white label partnership.

by James Buttery

Cult camera manufacturer Leica has introduced its first true watch collection on the company?s newly built Leitz-Park campus in Wetzlar, Germany, a concrete playground of contrasting curves and towering grey box-like buildings that turns out some of the most lusted after cameras in the world.
The Leica L2, the second crown, 12-hour inner rotating bezel and AM/PM indicator differentiate it from the less complicated L1.
Leica?s chairman, Dr Andreas Kaufmann, has been tentatively working with various partners to create Leica watches since 2012 having discussions with Chronoswiss and even going so far as considering a bid to acquire Black Forest watchmaker Hanhart. The most recent in that string of branded yet unrelated curios was a 2014 Valbray that aped the form of a camera shutter which, while interesting, screamed gimmick. Along the way the project started to involve a number of central players including Achim Heine, who was formerly one of Leica?s most important designers helping establish the brand?s new identity in 1999, author and former A. Lange & Söhne watchmaker Reinhard Meis and Black Forest micro-engineering firm and watch brand, Lehmann Präzision GmbH.
The Leica L2 movement
Together they worked on designing and manufacturing the movements at the centre of these two new watches from the 104-year-old...