In 2023, Leica expanded its young watch portfolio with the ZM 11, followed this year by the ZM 12 – proof that the brand’s horological ambitions are gaining momentum. Leading this effort is Henrik Ekdahl, Managing Director of Ernst Leitz Werkstätten. Over lunch in Wetzlar, we spoke about Leica’s unique position at the crossroads of technology and luxury, his plans for global growth, and the deep connection between cameras and mechanical timepieces.
Few people know this, but this is actually my second time at Leica. After completing my studies in Sweden, I was working in Saarbrücken as a postgraduate in the 1990s when I saw an advertisement in the FAZ newspaper, as was common in the pre-internet era. They were looking for an assistant to the international sales manager.
Even back then, I loved photography and was taking lots of pictures. I even worked with a Leica enlarger in the darkroom and wanted to become a photographer. So I was very familiar with Leica and applied for the job, got it, and started here in 1996. I was assistant to the international sales manager and later became area manager for Eastern Europe. Those were wild times in the years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, and it was my first civilian job after my time as an officer in the Swedish army. Suddenly, Leica had a whole new customer base. I was also responsible for the key account Lufthansa, where Leica cameras were offered for sale on board, but after two years I longed to return to a big city.
I’m wearing the Leica ZM11 Midnight Blue, which we launched in 2023.
Back then, it wasn’t like it is today. Leica was located 10 kilometres from here in the countryside in an office building. You could see cows outside the window. Everything was a bit provincial. I then joined Cartier as a product manager in Munich. After that, I was a sales manager at Baume & Mercier for a year. Subsequently, I became head of communications at Cartier, and in 2002 I moved to the BMW Group to work in strategic marketing. There I had the opportunity to work with Rolls-Royce. I set up a Brand Academy for the BMW Group brands, which still exists today. BMW had acquired Mini and Rolls-Royce at the time, so the question was raised: what makes a strong brand? I learned a lot about brand building during that time.
One day, the phone rang and I was asked if I would like to start working as Head of Marketing for BMW in Sweden. I had a great time in Stockholm, but when my former boss at Richemont asked me two years later if I would like to take over IWC in Germany, I couldn’t resist.
Yes, that ranged from Aachen to Vladivostok and from St. Petersburg to Tel Aviv, totalling around 30 countries! But returning to the question: I always kept in touch with Leica. On several occasions, IWC purchased products from Leica through my initiative. For example, there were small binoculars for the America’s Cup in Portugal and digital cameras for the Geneva Watch Fair. In addition to my large network of contacts and my many years of watch expertise, I bring with me a knowledge of how the watch market works.
Leica watches are a small start-up within the Leica Group. It’s not just about selling watches; this time, everything from design to sales is included, which has been steepening my learning curve.
We have over 100 Leica stores worldwide, of which more than 50 already sell our watches. The challenge, of course, is to offer and sell a new product segment in an environment completely dominated by cameras and photography. In addition, it naturally takes many years to establish oneself as a luxury watch brand.
In my opinion, customers’ love for the Leica camera brand is even greater than that of watch collectors. Not that watches aren’t emotional products, but every Leica owner creates very personal and emotional images with their camera. Anyone who captures special memories with a Leica camera is on a different emotional level.
For me, the beauty of Leica is that it is much more diverse than many people think: it is not the last survivor of the analogue photography era, but rather an absolute high-tech company today. Although we sell thousands of analogue cameras every year, we also have excellent digital cameras that are used by top photographers, artists, and ambitious amateurs all over the world. We definitely build the best lenses in the world. In addition, we offer long-range optics not only for hunting, but also for birdwatching and nature observation, and since last year we have been offering home cinema projectors. We also have eyeglass lenses in our range. Mechanical watches are part of the brand portfolio, and further product categories will follow.
Very few people know that Ernst Leitz I, our founding father, moved to Neuchâtel in Switzerland at the age of 20 and trained as a watchmaker there. He learned how to design watches and manufacture them in series. He returned to Wetzlar with this expertise and began building the best microscopes in the world. His son, Ernst Leitz II, decided to build the Leica 1, the world’s first 35 mm camera, which revolutionised photography. What’s more, if you take apart our iconic Leica M6, you’ll find a mechanical timer for the shutter under the cover cap that controls the exposure times, including gears, barrel and bridges. So, every Leica camera contains watchmaking expertise.
Perhaps not at first, but I only realised the close connection when I recognised that this technology and mechanics are still used today in analogue Leicas such as the M6 mentioned above. Anyone who sees this immediately recognises the connection between watches and cameras: you can not only see it, you can also hear it: the M6 is a precise mechanical timepiece. There is no reason why Leica should not also manufacture watches, but it is a long way off.
Yes, we owe him a lot. As with the few watch companies in Switzerland that are still family-owned, the entire Kaufmann family is wholeheartedly committed to the business. Mrs Rehn-Kaufmann is responsible for the cultural side of things. His daughter Charlotte is our marketing manager and her husband is my co-managing director at Ernst Leitz Werkstätten. Charlotte Kaufmann’s siblings are also active in the company.
Just look around. Ernst Leitz Park is a blessing. American and Japanese Leica customers even fly via Frankfurt to stop off here. I would say that many Swiss watch CEOs can only dream of what we have here: a hotel, restaurant, and café, plus the company’s own Leitz Museum with its image archive and, of course, the production facilities and the Leica store. I don’t know of any watch company that offers such an experience at its headquarters.
Of course, Leica cameras are expensive, as a camera with a lens often costs over 10,000 euros. But our cameras are primarily tools for creating emotions and memories, not purely luxury products. And I think that’s very good.
For me, this is also completely authentic: this company builds machines that we use in production and was large enough to start a certain amount of series production, but at the same time small enough to be interested in such a small order. The most important question in 2015 was: what do we actually want to do with the watches? Generating sales is a given, as is expanding the product portfolio, of course, but we also wanted to expand further into the luxury segment. We then decided on a hand-wound calibre, a manufacture movement developed in collaboration with Lehmann. It’s extremely challenging to start out like that.
We wanted hand-wound watches because, as with a camera, there is constant interaction between the wearer and the product, creating a closer connection. But: Of course, this is a bit of a niche, but at the same time something special.
We have incorporated Leica’s signature design into many components and combined them with exciting complications: these include the patented push-button crown, which is reminiscent of a camera shutter release. And the power reserve indicator consists of two black slats, which is also patented. All pushers also have a different shape so that, as with a Leica camera, you can feel them and sense which function you are currently operating. Even the shape of the legendary M cameras can be recognised in the side view of the watch case with its lugs. And since Leica photography has a lot to do with travel, the ZM 2 displays a second time zone, which is operated via the second crown. The arrangement of the bridges in the movement is also no coincidence: with a little imagination, you can see Leitz Park with its buildings from above. I particularly like the finishing of the movement, which is not decorated or engraved, but sandblasted with bevelled edges. At Leica, it has to look industrial because we are an industrial company.
Of course, with a new calibre, there are teething problems that need to be ironed out, but no one can fool us when it comes to precision: when you produce mechanical cameras with a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second, in-house quality standards are a matter of course.
Why do we make two watch lines? One is not enough, and we want to reach a broader audience in terms of price. And an automatic calibre is simply a must, but Lehmann did not have the capacity. So, we decided on Chronode. Their movement has been extensively adapted for our purposes and finished completely differently, and is equipped with its own winding rotor.
This line is less inspired by the hardware in Leica cameras than the first two models, but more by the world of photography. It’s about how light and shadow from different perspectives change what you see. What is special about these watches? The dial. It has two layers, and the actual dial is covered by a kind of grill, which is also lacquered and very complex to manufacture. It is something different from the horizontal stripes on a Patek Nautilus. In our case, this element is two-coloured and two-layered, which many collectors tell me is unique. In addition, there is a proprietary Easy Change System for the wristbands, based on the interchangeable lenses of cameras. You press the red button on the back of the case and the wristband is removed.
The future will not be revolution, but evolution. I’m not someone who walks into a company and says, ‘Do everything differently.’ We’ve only been on the market for three years. You have to be careful with what you have, and of course you have to constantly improve and develop it. The foundation is good. In February of this year, three more models were launched, and in April came the ZM 12 Blue Orange, which at 39 millimetres is slightly smaller than the ZM 11 at 41 millimetres. This is the most striking model to date and is already the best-selling watch.
We’ve only just started. We don’t want to turn Leica into a pure watch brand; it will remain an exciting addition to our core camera business for a long time to come. But we want to be perceived as a serious watch brand. We’re proving that with the products we have: five and seven complications in the first two watches, respectively – that’s quite something. We still have a long way to go. We don’t have the resources to launch a new manufacture calibre every two years. I think 3,000 to 5,000 watches would be a healthy target.
I don’t see any other brand that has such an emotional, and at the same time technical, identity in the background like Leica does. And for me, the difference between Montblanc or other lifestyle watch brands is that we have the history of our founder, who started out as a watchmaker. Leica’s justification for also manufacturing watches is much stronger than that of brands that simply say: watches are a cool, emotional product, so we want to get in on that too.
At Ernst Leitz Werkstätten, we don’t just make watches, but all of Leica’s ‘non-technical lifestyle accessories’. This autumn, there will be something new in the leather goods sector, but I won’t reveal any more than that. So the product pyramid looks like this: watches at the top, then accessories, and then brand accessories at the base. Leather goods are the obvious next step. Especially since we have already processed leather internally in previous decades. Incidentally, the leather is supplied by the same producer who also manufactures the material for the special edition of our high-end cameras.
For me, there are two markets in particular: the USA and Japan. The Japanese have an almost obsessive demand for quality. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere, and in the USA I sense more openness towards new watch brands, even though Leica is over 100 years old.
Most of our Leica stores are located in Asia. Europe comes in second place. And in the USA, we certainly have room for improvement, but that’s an area that my colleagues at Leica Camera AG are responsible for.
The watches are currently only available in half of the just over 100 stores worldwide. In terms of personnel, we already have many people working for us who have experience with watches: the US boss was with Montblanc for 20 years, and the sales representative for the American East Coast was with Franck Muller for a long time. We have store managers who used to work for Hublot. And we have a manager in China who was head of retail for IWC. Our watch expertise is, therefore, greater than you might think. But with a few exceptions, most of the sales staff in our stores are very focused on cameras: our colleagues became camera salespeople for a reason and love photography above all else. That is certainly a challenge.
We are just getting started with jewellers. So far, we have only opened one store, deliberately in Wetzlar, right on our doorstep, so that people can take a closer look at the products on display in the shop window and simply learn about them. I met the owner for dinner last week. He says he loves selling Leica watches because he has such wonderful stories to tell about them. But of course we need more. There are also retailers who would like to stock us but don’t currently have the right space. We also need to get into the right brand environment. In Germany, the conservative attitude is also a challenge; people prefer to sell Rolex watches rather than get involved with something new.
I disagree: Leica stores work very differently from classic luxury shops because you immediately become part of the Leica family. And, no one I know is afraid of going into a camera shop. That can be a real advantage over luxury watch shops, especially since other independent watch brands would love to have shops in such locations. Nevertheless, it remains a challenge to sell mechanical watches in an environment so focused on cameras.
It may be that a watch is the most expensive product in the store, but we also have lenses that cost well over 10,000 euros, for example. I’m not worried about that. There were and still are many Leica enthusiasts who bought right from the start; we even had waiting lists initially. But one thing is clear: we will not be successful if we only sell watches to existing Leica customers. That’s why a well-measured expansion of external distribution is important.
I got my first watch at the age of seven from a jeweller in Göttingen. It was a Seiko automatic, 36 millimetres, for 140 Deutschmarks. I still have it. I remember clearly that the same shop advertised James Bond watches, and James Bond wore a Seiko digital watch that cost 499 Deutschmarks. I would have loved to have had one. Later, I got a Casio. At the time, I dreamed of owning a Longines Lindbergh or an Omega Speedmaster. Rolex was never my thing. Later, I got a Cartier Pascha, the one with the grid on it, as a wearable watch. That one was very special. I regret a little that I sold the watch years ago, after all, it was a Gerald Genta design. After that, I bought my first Panerai, a Luminor Marina, in 1999.
Yes, of course. I generally have three watch brands: I wear Leica today, of course, but I have also collected IWC and Panerai. My favourite IWC is the Big Ingenieur, which I have in rose gold with a leather strap and in steel. They have an impressive 45-millimetre diameter. The manufacture calibre 51113. I also like the Big Pilot. I have it in white gold with a grey dial, which is very rare. I have two perpetual calendars from the Portugieser, one of which I received as a farewell gift from CEO Christoph Grainger-Herr.
However, I am not one of those people who want and need to change everything immediately. In my opinion, it is also a sign of weakness and insecurity if you cannot accept that much of what your predecessors did was and is good. And I am grateful for that, because I think much of what we have in our range is very beautiful. But some things can and must be perfected further. However, the basis is good; for me, both watch lines are typical Leica.
The very first thing I did was to introduce the glass dome, a storage case for the watches designed to look like a lens case, as standard packaging for all watch lines. In my opinion, this is an absolutely iconic watch packaging. Then, of course, I made certain personnel decisions, which I don’t want to go into in detail here.
Please note that it is not limited. It makes perfect sense to occasionally venture into a collaboration with cameras. There are ideas, and there are already renderings, on how certain camera features or specific cameras can be better integrated with future watches. We are talking about a lead time of several years here.
When I look at the state of the world, I am not an optimist. And there is little positive news coming out of Germany either. I think that in the future, the strong brands will become even stronger. Only a few others will manage to carve out a niche for themselves.
The challenge is that Lehmann does not have the production capacity we need for a second product line. On the other hand, not everything at Leica is made in Germany, but rather made by Leica. In the long term, we are striving to achieve more made by Leica in the watch sector. It would be nice if it were made in Germany, because ultimately Leica’s headquarters are in Wetzlar. But you have to be patient. One thing is certain: we do a lot in Germany, but we also source parts from other countries.
We used to do that with the accuracy certificate, but we don’t anymore. The ZM 11 and ZM 12 correspond to a chronometer certificate in terms of accuracy, with minus 4 to plus 6 seconds per day, and with the ZM 1 and ZM 2, we even exceed that level with 0 to plus 6 seconds per day. However, it was decided years ago that we did not want our own chronometer certification. It is more important to me that our watches fully meet the requirements in this price segment. And even though I know that some customers really appreciate it, it also drives up costs and prolongs the production process. The decisive factor is that the watches are very accurate.
I don’t like to rule anything out categorically, but personally I’m not a fan of quartz. At least not for luxury watches.
Personally, I really care about the environment. Unfortunately, my carbon footprint is not so great due to my worldwide travels, and I know that many customers care about the environment. But to be honest, unfortunately not as much as some watch manufacturers’ marketing departments would like to think. Basically, mechanical watches are already fantastically environmentally friendly. There are no batteries inside, and the models can still be repaired in 100 years’ time. And we mustn’t forget that Leica Camera AG is fundamentally committed to certain sustainability principles. I read through our annual CO2 report just a few days ago. I recommend taking a look at our Certified Pre-Owned project for cameras, for example: the company sells historic cameras, repairs them and sells them again, often models that are several decades old. That’s what I call sustainable.
