A unique Leica camera prototype designed by Jony Ive, Apple’s former head of all design at the company, and his colleague Marc Newson is heading to auction in June at a starting price of 100,000 euro, which works out to approximately $118,000.
A Jony Ive and Marc Newson-designed Leica
The unit is listed on the official Leica Photographica Auction website as being in “B+” condition. Ive and Newson apparently built hundreds of prototype parts for the camera before eventuating getting to this particular prototype as the final development step.
The prototype unit does resemble Ive’s minimalist design style from his Apple days, including an aluminum body along with a highly reflective surface. The lot is estimated to raise between 200,000 euro ($235,000) and 250,000 euro ($295,000) in bidding.
It is unclear whether the camera prototype is functional.
It’s equipped with a matching Apo-Summicron 2/50 mm ASPH lens. “Only one finished camera has been made and was sold in an auction for an amazing $1.8 million,” says Leica.
Would You Bid on This Jony Ive-Made Leica?
The finished unit was a 35mm full-frame camera with a full-format CMOS sensor. This could be “a very special opportunity” for Leica collectors, the company adds.
While Ive and Newson are no longer employed by Apple, the company did say in the past that bot designers were still “very involved” with some aspects of product development.
Apple has never collaborated with Leica on products.
That being said, however, Steve Jobs likened the iPhone 4 design to “a beautiful Leica camera” during the onstage reveal back in 2010. And during the Steve Jobs exile, the company produced its own digital camera in 1994 dubbed the Apple QuickTake.