Does Anybody Really Care What Time It Is? Leica Sells Watches

[boojum]

Just ran across this. I guess the price goes up as the size diminishes:

https://gizmodo.com/leica-announces-expensive-watches-1848499742

 

[helen.HH]

I don't know, I suppose Eau de cologne or Parfum
is next ... rolls eyes

 

[Rob-F]

I don't mind if Leica wants to make watches; but I don't care for that one. It looks clunky and I don't care for the second hand being on a subdial. My Glycine Airman is nicer.

 

[ptpdprinter]

Aren’t these the Leica watches from a couple of years ago?

 

[filmtwit]

But I can get a Rolex.... FOR LESS!!!!


ok, maybe not less, but that's why you get a Omega instead.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Phone, watch, binocular. You need it all in style to match five Leica cameras which you are going to bring on modern safari, where they are keeping barely able to walk anymore tourists in the open vehicles to entertain savanna animals.

 

[Darthfeeble]

No red dot?????

 

[boojum]

No red dot?????

On the crown.

It seems Leica is striving to ascend to the top of the conspicuous consumption heap. The next step has to be really expensive jewelry. This is not your father's Wetzlar Leitz. Cameras will be a sideline. The line for masochists will be the longest.

 

[bluesun267]

I like the model names: L1, L2. Finally they're giving due homage to the best LTM cameras of the 1950s

 

[Guth]

It seems Leica is striving to ascend to the top of the conspicuous consumption heap.

It's been working out for them for quite some time now. It's my belief that had Leica not reinvented itself as a lifestyle brand, they would no longer be around today. This move would seemingly fit in well with that approach. While I have no interest in such things, if this helps keep them up and running then more power to them I suppose.

 

[boojum]

Well, here is the answer. Leica is not a camera company. It is a "brand." Any questions?

Got this from the Leica Barnak Blog: https://gmpphoto.blogspot.com/



“I am very happy that this long-term project is now ready to be presented," Leica Camera majority owner Dr. Andreas Kaufmann said. "I believe that, together with our partners, we have succeeded in developing a watch ‘Made in Germany’ that is representative of Leica and embodies the values of our premium brand.”

 

[Yokosuka Mike]

It's been working out for them for quite some time now. It's my belief that had Leica not reinvented itself as a lifestyle brand, they would no longer be around today. This move would seemingly fit in well with that approach. While I have no interest in such things, if this helps keep them up and running then more power to them I suppose.

Well said.

All the best,
Mike

 

[krötenblender]

In street-photography, timing is everything! So it makes sense to sell watches for Leica… 😛

 

[raydm6]

Irrespective of price, I think the watches are quite nice and include some interesting camera metaphors in their design (see linked article). Movement is German-made.

From Escapement Magazine...

The engineering firm responsible for building the movement in both the L1 and L2 is Lehmann Präzision. Apart from having a wonderfully swish modern HQ on Weilerstraße in Hardt, they’ve done clever things with crowns on their own range of watches. Here they’ve played a blinder with the two Leicas. Not only did it specially develop two movements, one with a GMT function, it actually developed and produced most of the watches’ components in its Black Forest workshop. Properly vertical manufacturing.

The two 26 jewel movements are both manual-winders with around 60 hours of power reserve. The balance runs at a conventionally rapid 28,800Vph (4Hz if that’s your thing) and have a power reserve indicator.

And what movements they are! The bridges for the balance and the going train are separate halves of a grained and polished circle. The balance bridge is anchored at either end for better stability and has a novel micro adjuster. The winding train is almost completely open, again with grained and polished bridgework. Each screwhead is mirror-polished. The finishing throughout is, as you’d expect, very high quality work indeed. Fortunately, it’s not hidden away and Leica has thoughtfully provided a sapphire crystal, screw-on, caseback.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

You can buy a Rolex for less, and it would be an automatic.

 

[raydm6]

You can buy a Rolex for less, and it would be an automatic.

I'm wondering if the mechanical-only movements were also a conscious design decision in order to carry the mechanical camera metaphor foreword. Mechanical winds keep you in touch with (and creates a more intimate relationship with) a watch; more-so than an auto-wind movement - (akin to an auto-advance or auto-rewind mechanism on a camera).

 

[Rob-F]

I'm wondering if the mechanical-only movements were also a conscious design decision in order to carry the mechanical camera metaphor foreword. Mechanical winds keep you in touch with (and creates a more intimate relationship with) a watch; more-so than an auto-wind movement - (akin to an auto-advance or auto-rewind mechanism on a camera).

I think it probably had more to do with a wish to make the movement more visible. The rotor of an automatic movement hides half the movement at a given position. You gotta admit, it is a very pretty movement.

 

[ptpdprinter]

I don't wear a watch. I tell time using Sunny 16. I feel freer and more creative.

 

[raydm6]

I don't wear a watch. I tell time using Sunny 16. I feel freer and more creative.

I tried that - looking at the red dot in the sky. Burned my retinas. 🙂

 

[zuiko85]

Veblen goods and so what. The wealthy actually need more of this type of stuff if they feel the need to display their wealth. (Certainly something not all of them feel the need to do.) For most of us watches are a utility, when we need to check the time. The most accurate watch I ever wore was an $10 Casio with a LDC display. Wore it about 3 years and when the band broke would stick it in my pocket, that lasted another 3 years. Today the same watch is $20 and will probably provide the same service. But of course now on the rare occasion I need to know the time I just check my phone.
For style, if I were to design my own watch face it would be bright white numbers on a flat black face, bright white hour and minute hands and a sweep second hand and nothing else, no day or date windows.