Leica's Watches
This article explores Leica's venture into watchmaking, highlighting the brand's historical connection to precision engineering through its founder, Ernst Leitz I, who trained in watchmaking. Leica Watches aims to leverage this legacy and the conceptual link between photography capturing time and watches measuring it to expand its product portfolio beyond cameras.
Leica's founder, Ernst Leitz I, trained in watchmaking in Neuchâtel for nearly two years, learning precision engineering.
The brand sees a conceptual bridge between photography, which captures time, and watches, which measure it.
Leica launched its first watches, the ZM 1 and ZM 2, in 2022, featuring hand-wound manufacture calibers.
The company acknowledges that while establishing a serious presence with manufacture movements was important, future production may not exclusively use them due to resource limitations.