Laco is celebrating its 100th anniversary by giving away 100 watches

Jamie Weiss

2025 is a year that marks major anniversaries for some of the watch industry’s best-loved brands: for instance, Zenith is marking its 160th anniversary, Breguet its 250th, and Vacheron Constantin is celebrating a whopping 270 years of continuous production… But forget the big Swiss brands for a moment. Another brand observing a momentous anniversary this year is Laco, with 2025 representing its 100th anniversary.

As we’ve written about before, it’s an uphill battle making watches outside of Switzerland – so the fact that a relatively small, independent German watchmaker (and one that’s not based in Glashütte, for that matter) has managed to survive a whole century is an impressive feat. And Laco’s celebrating in grand style, giving away 100 exclusive watches over 100 days to commemorate this centennial.

Between July 19th and October 26th, 2025, Laco will be giving away 100 watches in a campaign they’ve appropriately dubbed “100 Years – 100 Days – 100 Watches”. The watch in question is called the Laco Frieda: a new model that won’t be available for purchase and can only be acquired through this giveaway. Laco typically names its models after cities or geographical features, so Frieda is a departure from form.

The watch’s name is actually a reference to a formative figure in Laco’s history, Frieda Lacher, co-founder of the brand and one of only a handful of historical female watch brand founders. As Laco puts it, “In 1925, when women were rarely seen in business leadership roles, founding a company was anything but ordinary. It was a bold move – a sign of true strength and vision that still resonates a century later.”

The Laco Frieda special edition is a classic ‘Type A’ flieger-style watch – Laco, of course, is well-known for its pilot’s watches – with an idiosyncratic grainy red dial, red being Laco’s brand colour. It’s got an almost outback sand-like appearance, and is complemented by a sandblasted stainless steel case and grey leather strap with red stitching. Each of the 100 watches is individually numbered on its caseback, with the left-hand side of the watch featuring a ‘1925-2025’ commemorative engraving too.

So, how do you get one of these watches? As the campaign’s name implies, each day from July 19th to October 26th, one of these Friedas will be given away across Laco’s own online shop, social media promotions, newsletter activities, and collaborations with media partners, bloggers, YouTubers and at select events… So you’ll just have to keep your eyes peeled. Not to worry: there’ll be a regularly updated online calendar on the Laco website for you to keep track of where the next Frieda will be given away.

I just think this is a great little initiative. In my opinion, Laco is a rather underrated brand: based in the south-west of Germany in Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg, they’ve got genuine historic tool watch credibility and rather affordable pricing, a reflection of their use of Swiss and Japanese movements in German-made watches. Laco hasn’t always had the easiest or most straightforward history – barely surviving both WWII and the quartz crisis, and ownership having changed hands a number of times over the years before its current, independent incarnation – but it’s a brand that deserves more recognition. Hopefully, getting some free watches on people’s wrists will spark some curiosity and popularity.