Leica is determined to celebrate its 100th anniversary in style, with lots of excellent limited edition and special collections. This time the acclaimed German company has teamed up with Swiss watchmaker Valbray in order to create a special line of watches inspired by Leica’s cameras called the Valbray EL1 “100 Years of Leica Photography Edition”.
The timepiece features the unique Valbray diaphragm dial, a very complicated and delicate system of 16 individual blades which slide in and out when you turn the bezel, like the diaphragm of a camera. On the EL 1 (the initials of Leica founder Ernst Leitz), this diaphragm is surrounded by a ring reminiscent of the ring around the end of a Leica lens, engraved with the words Leica Camera, EL 1, Weitzlar Germany, and 100 Years.
Underneath this diaphragm is the main dial, featuring the signature Valbray V motif over the metallic honeycomb ground and three registers for the chronograph totalizers and the running seconds. These subdials suggest the layout of the setting dials on the top of Leica’s rangefinders, while another homage to the camera is the 4.5 at the 4:30 hour mark (the only hour marker on the dial), a tribute to the very first Leica which had a fixed aperture of 4.5.
The camera is available in versions, each limited to 50 numbered pieces. Both come with a 46mm grade 5 titanium case, with one of them brushed and the other blackened with a DLC coating. Both feature an automatic chronograph movement adorned with 25 jewels, an open-worked rotor, and a 44-hour power reserve.
[HODINKEE]
