Laco Frankfurt GMT Schwarz Review

Laco has always been a watch brand I had interest in but never really had the opportunity to spend any real time with. Since the IWC Big Pilot launched over 20 years ago, I’ve been fascinated with the origins of that watch and have even owned three Big Pilots over the years.

The story of the Big Pilot starts with the B-Uhren watch created for German pilots during World War II. The watches were extremely oversized at 55 mm and meant to be worn over a flight jacket. The main purpose of the B-Uhren was to be a watch that stressed readability over all else, even though you could argue my Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar isn’t easiest watch to read at a glance…



The B-Uhren produced for the German pilots all shared the same basic design language of the oversized case with a high contrast dial with a triangle at 12 o’clock giving the pilot a quick reference point. Although there were a handful of companies that produced the B-Uhren, four stand out as still being in business today that are: IWC, A. Lange & Sohne, Stowa and Lacher & Company/Durowe (now Laco).

Laco was founded in Pforzheim Germany in 1925 by Frieda Lacher and Ludwig Hummel as Lacher & Co. From its founding until World War II, Laco showed tremendous growth and by the start of the war was producing 30,000 movements per month. Laco was also producing completed watches as well, with the Pilot’s watch being one of their most popular models.



During the war 80% of Pforzheim was destroyed including most factories, but by 1949 after heavy rebuilding efforts, Laco and their sister company Durowe were back in business. By the mid 1950’s Laco-Durowe had over 1,400 employees and was producing 80,000 movements a month. In 1959, Laco-Durowe was sold to US watch giant Timex who hoped Laco would help produce electric watches. This ownership lasted just 6 years and Laco was then sold to Swiss company Ebauches S.A..

Over the following years, Laco sailed through troubled waters for some time and finally had to file for insolvency in 2009. Intensive negotiations took place with various companies. In the spring of 2010, Laco resumed business with new owners which restructured the company and also the watch collection. With only eight employees at the beginning, they returned to its original roots: the focus should once again be on craftsmanship rather than industry. In the meantime Laco has about 20 employees and launches new watch models every year which combine tradition with modern watch design.

Under this new ownership Laco saw tremendous growth and has launched dozens of new watches. Although Laco does offer field, diver and dress watches, their calling card and bread and butter is their Pilot’s watches. Laco does still produce traditional Pilot’s watches that pay homage to the B-Uhren from the 1940s, but they also have more contemporary Pilot’s designs as well. One such modern watch is the Frankfurt GMT Schwarz, which we are going to take a detailed look at today.



The Frankfurt GMT is included in Laco’s Pilot Watches Special Models collection. While it does have some elements of the traditional Pilot’s watch such as the triangle with two dots found at 12 o’clock, the Frankfurt GMT is a much more modern take on a Pilot’s watch. Instead of having one large crown at 3 o’clock the Frankfurt GMT has crowns at 2 o’clock and 4 o’clock, with the upper one controlling the inner rotating bezel and the lower controlling time, date and GMT settings.

Speaking of the GMT function, Laco has decided to go with a true (or traveler or flyer) GMT movement for the Frankfurt GMT. Unlike cheaper GMT models with fixed GMT hands, the GMT used in the Frankfurt GMT allows the GMT hand to be adjusted independently of the local hour hand. This is particularly useful for those who are constantly going between time zones. Although you would think the GMT function would be useful for a Pilot’s watch, it’s not something that is seen often, further moving the Frankfurt GMT away from being a traditional Pilot’s watch.



When the Frankfurt GMT arrived, I was really impressed with its packaging. The watch comes in a slim rectangular aluminum case with the Laco 1925 text on top. Opening up the case finds the inside filled with foam with cutouts for the watch, card, paperwork, extra strap and accessories. The case is very well thought out and everything has its own place and is presented all laid out so everything can be seen at once.

The first thing I noticed about the Frankfurt GMT was the hue of the case material. Even knowing the case is made out of stainless steel, the watch really looks and feels like it is crafted out of matte grey ceramic. The only giveaway is the heft of the watch, which weighs in at 102 grams. If the watch was indeed ceramic, it would be substantially lighter. Laco describes the case as dark sandblasted stainless steel, but it truly has to be seen in person to really appreciate how different the finish looks.



Once getting past the look of the case, the next thing that caught my attention was the orange on the tip of the GMT hand as well as the triangle on the inner rotating 24 hour bezel. The orange really catches your attention and makes finding the GMT hand and 24 hour mark on the bezel a breeze. Laco also includes a second fabric strap with an orange stripe to further highlight the orange markings on the dial.

Next up, all the dial and bezel markings along with the hour, minute and seconds hands are coated in Superluminova and in bright light come off as a yellowish green color. This immediately got my attention because I am used to Pilot’s watches having stark while markings and hands on a black dial. It’s an interesting design choice and in low light the watch really glows. Also even being called the Schwarz (black in German) version, the dial is a darker grey. You can see the difference when you compare the dial color to the true black of the top half of the 24 hour bezel. Once again, this is a color combo not often seen in traditional Pilot’s watches. Laco also offers a model of the Frankfurt GMT with a lighter grey dial that matches the lower half of the 24 hour bezel more closely.



A nice and somewhat traditional touch was that Laco used blued hands for the hour and minute hands. They are rather subtle, but in the right lighting and when looking for them, they are fairly obvious. Rounding out the dial, there is a Laco Logo at 12 o’clock and GMT and “Made In Germany” text along with a date window at 6 o’clock. Laco picked to go with bright white for these three elements, but I feel they are a bit overpowering and if they were either orange or lume matching would fit the dial better. Laco also uses Arabic numerals for 3 and 9 and the orientation triangle at 12 o’clock.

The case back of the Frankfurt GMT is also the same dark sandblasted stainless steel found on the case and features an engraving of a jet flying over Europe. The case back is screwed on and offers 200 meters of water resistance. The rest of the case back has all the normal information about the watch engraved into it. We’re happy that Laco didn’t use a display case back here, since it hinders the magnetic field protection and there isn’t that much reason to look at a Sellita movement. It’s nice to see the trend of every watch needing a display back fading away.



Speaking of the movement, Laco went with the Sellita 330-2 movement branded as the Laco 330 caliber. The 330-2 is a Swiss made automatic movement that beats at 28,800 bph (4Hz) and offers up to 56 hours of power reserve. On our timegrapher the Frankfurt GMT showed an accuracy of -1 to +1 seconds a day with a majority of the time stuck at 0 seconds per day. If I hadn’t just measured my Big Pilot Perpetual which is losing 30 minutes overnight (something is really wrong…) and shows +5 seconds per day accuracy, I’d think my timegrapher was broken since it’s been showing so many watches with near or perfect accuracy. Even more interesting is that all those watches with near perfect accuracy were running off the shelf non-in-house movements.



As mentioned earlier the Frankfurt GMT has two crowns, both being screw down and both having the Laco L logo on them. The crown at 2 o’clock once unscrewed will turn the bi-directional inner 24 hour bezel with a nice solid click. There are four stops along each hour interval on the dial, having preset stops also makes sure the bezel will line up perfectly when you have found your desired setting. The crowns screw deeply into the case and each crown also has two crown guards which when screwed in makes the crowns nearly flush with the guards.

The crown at 4 o’clock once unscrewed allows for manually winding. Pulling the crown out to position 1 allows the date and GMT hand to be set. Turning the crown away from you moves the GMT hand, while turning the crown towards you sets the date. Finally position 2 allows you to set the time on the Frankfurt GMT along with bringing the seconds hand to a stop.



The lugs on the Frankfurt GMT measure in at 20 mm and the watch uses traditional spring bars. The black leather strap has a textured pattern on top and traditional leather on the bottom. The strap features black stitching and is handmade in Germany. The strap also has two loops and features a stainless steel pin buckle with a Laco logo on it. There is no taper on the strap and the buckle also measures in at 20 mm. One tiny complaint is that the buckle isn’t the same dark sandblasted stainless steel as the case and looks a bit different color wise. On my 7.25” wrist, I still had 6 holes available to size up and 2 holes left to size down, meaning the watch could accept a much larger wrist than mine. If you have a small wrist you might need to look for a different strap, but at 20 mm, there are countless strap options available being the most common strap width.



Our calipers confirmed all the measurements for the watch provided by Laco were accurate. The case diameter is 43 mm, the lug to lug length is 50 mm and the case thickness is 12.5 mm. While I do prefer watches with larger lug to lug measurements than 50 mm, the Frankfurt GMT just barely felt the right size for me. If the diameter and lug to lug dropped by a millimeter or two, I’d probably feel the watch was too small for my preferences.

The lack of taper to the strap and not too hefty weight of 102 grams never made the Frankfurt GMT a chore to wear. The watch pretty much also stayed centered on my wrist never favoring one side or the other. Personally I prefer a deployant clasp on my watches and do not enjoy the balancing act of putting on a watch with a pin buckle. Besides that point, the buckle and strap combo were incredibly comfortable when on wrist.



Laco states that the sapphire crystal is double domed, but it is extremely subtle. We’ve had a few watches in recently that have severely domed crystals, so our definition of domed might be a bit off. The crystal has anti-reflective coating on both sides of the crystal and even in super bright lighting the dial was easy to read and didn’t catch too much glare. When hit in certain lighting, the blued hour and minute hands just look amazing as well. For how modern the design of the Frankfurt GMT is, it’s very nice to have such a well executed tradition feature like blued hands.



This week’s fun activities included Father’s day and going out to dinner and drinks a few times. The Frankfurt GMT accompanied me on all these trips and was a great companion on the wrist. The mostly grey and black design of the Frankfurt GMT fit in perfectly with my dress of mostly black t-shirts, grey shorts and sneakers. I didn’t get asked much about the watch while being worn since it does have a more of a stealth appearance. Also Austin, especially the area we live in isn’t too much of a watch heavy location. For the most part people only care if you’re wearing a steel or gold Rolex sports model. The few acquaintances of ours we ran into did only have good things to say about the Frankfurt GMT, with most commenting about the color and finishing of the case.



Coming in at $1,990, the Frankfurt GMT is a good value for the money. It comes from one of the pioneers of Pilot’s watches and retains some of the classic elements of the genre, while also bringing more modern elements in both design and function to the watch. The addition of a true GMT function is also a nice added bonus.

When looking at competitors, you have to look at an IWC Pilot’s watch when comparing any Pilot’s watch such as the Frankfurt GMT. Pricewise the closest IWC Pilot’s watch is the Mark XX. The Mark series has been around virtually forever and besides the Big Pilot is the most iconic of IWC Pilot’s watches. The Mark XX comes in at $5,250 and is crafted out of stainless steel. The watch is 3 mm smaller than the Frankfurt GMT. The Mark XX does offer an in-house IWC movement with 120 hours of power reserve though. Also the Mark XX is a purely traditional pilot’s watch design with hours, minutes, seconds and date functions only.



Like Laco and IWC, STOWA was also one of the producers of the B-Uhren, so it only fits to compare one of their models to the Frankfurt GMT. STOWA only offers traditional pilot’s watches and their Flieger Classic Sport comes in at $1,350 featuring a 43 mm stainless steel case. The watch offers an automatic movement with only hours, minutes and seconds functions. The design is about as classic is it gets with blued hands, triangle at 12 o’clock and a no-nonsense dial with only Arabic numerals.

With there being a lack of Pilot’s watches featuring a GMT function, we can look at a true GMT watch for comparison’s sake. The Farer Lander IV features the same Selitta SW330-2 movement with the true GMT function. The watch measures in 3.5 mm smaller at 39.5 mm and has half of the water resistance at 100 meters. The watch has some pilot’s watch design aspects like the big crown and uncluttered dial with large Arabic numerals. At $1,465 it’s around $500 less than the Frankfurt GMT, but is also a much more classic design.



In the end, the Laco Frankfurt GMT offers a lot for its $1,990 asking price. You get the heritage and name that goes along with a Laco Pilot’s watch, modern styling and a super useful true GMT function. For anyone looking for a watch with pilot’s watch design cues that can benefit from having a GMT function, the Frankfurt GMT is a no brainer. Sure there a few things I’d change like the color of some dial elements and make the buckle match the case, but those are small gripes for an otherwise awesome watch. Having a near 0 second per day accuracy is also a huge plus.

We’d really like to thank Sarah and everyone over at Laco for sending us this Frankfurt GMT to review. I’d really like to get my hands on one of their more traditional pilot’s watches and compare it to IWC’s Big Pilot that I’m so familiar with, even if I don’t have a time only Big Pilot anymore, just a Perpetual Calendar.



For more information about the Frankfurt GMT please visit : Laco

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: 862120.2

Retail Price: $1,990

Case Size: 43 mm

Lug to Lug: 50 mm

Thickness: 12.5 mm

Weight: 102 Grams

Case Material:  Dark Sandblasted Stainless Steel

Bezel: Inner Rotating 24 Hour

Strap: Black Leather with Pin Buckle (Nylon Strap Included)

Movement: Laco 330 (Sellita 330-2)

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Date, True GMT

Power Reserve: 56 Hours

Water Resistance: 200 Meters