Laco today

[sci]

When I decide to buy a gift watch for my father, I really wanted to see and feel Laco (my choice) in real. Despite the fact that I am living in Karlsruhe (some 35km away from Pforzheim) I didn't found a single watch shop around selling Laco. Even worse - in none of them knew about the Laco watches. Now, an year and a half later, for the first time I saw Laco watches and big nice Laco catalog in a brick-and-mortar shop in Stuttgart:

(the nice mechanical chrono on the booklet is a Strela watch, not a Laco. But you have an idea of the booklet size).

Why Laco have so little presence out of the WIS and online stores? It is clear that the Lacher/Durowe days are gone, but is Laco today just a small atelier producing some hundreds watches per month? On the back of the catalog there is a post address. Let's go an see!

(the parking places were free on Saturday, just stopped for a minute...)

Sure, the building is not the one from the "Laco History", but it's definitely not a small atelier. Own building with serious machinery seen from the windows. Absolute, Sport and 1969 are all excellent additions to the main 3 lines. There isn't really a weak model in the Laco collection today. The capacity and capability are definitely on place. The exposure to the general public really deserves to be more. And Absolute deserves to take a piece of Nomos pie :)

[Uwe W.]

Why Laco have so little presence out of the WIS and online stores?

Great post!

But to answer your question, I think they produce a lot more than just what you see online in the Laco Shop - or at least they use to. Lacher, I believe, is/was a private label manufacturer, and so a good deal of their business would be manufacturing watches with other people's names on them. Also, they do have what I consider to be a respectable international presence. Will you find a brick and mortar selling Laco in every major urban centre like you would Omega or Rolex. No. But there are stores that carry the brand in various locations around the world, which is much more than most boutique brands can claim.

I'm glad you drove the 35 km to take a picture for us. I'll bet that lone car belongs to Diana; she works very hard and rumour has it that she's not allowed to leave the office (they did give her a nice cot in the basement to sleep on though). And where are the spy photos? A REAL WIS would have mounted their camera to a pole and taken photos through the upper windows to catch a glimpse of the newest Laco that will soon be launched.

[sci]

Welcome. But it wasn't such a sacrifice, I was on the way from Stuttgart to Karlsruhe and just turn off to Pforzheim. And the car in front is mine :) I didn't make illegal actions (like spy photos), because I saw the secure camera capturing me parking.

[Janne]

I guess the building is not the old original one because the Old one got pulverised in early -45

[kubelwagen]

Thanks for sharing this sci! -- good to see where these nice watches come from. Am surprised to hear that its not as known within the area. Maybe as its (now) more known / distributed thru online retailers (?). Cheers

[Myron]

Thank you Sci. I enjoyed seeing the Laco building with your beautiful Bimmer parked out front. 335? or is it a 5-series?

Myron

[sci]

I'm glad you guys like the topic. There is also "open" time declared on the door - 2 hours in two days of the week. I don't know if it is a customer support in place, or a visit in the factory is also possible at that times.
Thank you Myron - it's a 320d, face lifted E90. The phone camera did it unrecognizable :)

[Eduwatch]

Hi Sci:

Good post. Thanks for sharing.

BTW, besides Laco fans, I guess we're also Strela Fans. Nice 204, like mine.

Greetings from Barcelona.

Eduwatch

[sci]

Since yesterday we are already 3 people in my family, wearing Laco - me, my wife and my father (as mentioned in the first post). Greetings to Mrs.Bott and Mrs.Farr from Laco for the good service :) The watches are really great, my Münster is keeping 1sec/day till now and I got already so many compliments for it!
The Münster:

And the Marine 36 for the wife:

The second one is definitely unisex model. A man with thinner wrist (like mine) can wear it without problems. It's a nice little watch with very cute presence. Should receive more attention in the fora.
Group photo:

[logan2z]

Great post, I missed it when it was first posted.

I just purchased my first Laco last week (a 45mm hand wound Type A dial B-Uhr) and agree that the brand is really underrated. Truth is, I couldn't decide between the A and B dials so I bought both. The B dial just arrived yesterday and I haven't stopped staring at it since. It's a really great watch and terrific value, IMHO. These watches have given me Laco fever and I just ordered a Kiel chronograph too! It's been four years since I bought a watch and I've bought three in the last week. Simebody stop me!!