These stunning new Leica watches look great in green

Leica, the German company famous for producing beautiful cameras, has revealed a new pair of mechanical watches.

The watches join Leica’s existing ZM 1 and ZM 2 product lines, but introduce a new dial colour called Urban Green. They each have a fumé noir dial with a gradient from green at their centre to black at the circumference.

Both of the new models are available with three strap options, of black calf leather with green contrast stitching, black alligator leather with green stitching or a Milanese, mesh-style stainless steel bracelet with integrated deployant buckle.

The two watches have the same 41 mm stainless steel case, with highly-polished and brush-finished surfaces, and beveled polished edges.

A key difference between the ZM 1 and ZM 2 is how the latter has a GMT complication for displaying a second time zone. This joins a dial that is also home to traditional hour and minute hands, plus a seconds dial at the six o’clock position, a date window at three o’clock, a power reserve indicator for the hand-wound mechanical movement, and a mode indicator. The ZM 2 also features a day/night indicator, since its GMT scale counts to 12 instead of the usual 24.

Both movements have 26 jewels and both have a power reserve of up to 60 hours. Leica also says both watches are water resistant to 50 metres, and both have domed sapphire crystal in their fronts, with anti-reflective coating on both sides, and a flat sapphire crystal on the exhibition case back. The latter is particularly delightful, given how much of the manually-wound movement is on show.

As with other Leica watches, these two have a patented push-crown, inspired by the shutter release of Leica cameras. A single press resets the second hand to zero, and another nod to Leica’s camera design is how the crown is finished with a red dot.

Returning to the new green dial, and it really is a thing of beauty. Not just green graduating to black, the aluminium dial features thin parallel grooves, known as satinage vertical. They give the dial a textured, silk-like aesthetic and really make it pop.

Available now, Leica’s newest watches are priced from £8,720 for the ZM 1 Urban Green, and £12,200 for the ZM 2 Urban Green. They are available online and in select Leica Stores.