ARTICLE – Pierro Pozella fixes broken film cameras for a living. He runs PPP Cameras out of a brick-and-mortar shop in Birmingham, England, processing film and breathing life back into gear that most people would toss in a drawer. Somewhere between the repairs and the chemical baths, he started making watches. Not from scratch, and not the kind that cost more than a used car. Pozella takes affordable Casio digitals and rebuilds them into something photographers actually want to wear.
Price: From £150 (Around $199)
Where to Buy: PPP
His latest creation is the N168, a custom Casio watch inspired by Nikon cameras. It follows the Casio M-Edition, a Leica-themed piece that sold out twice and forced PPP Cameras to announce a third production run. Together, the two watches have turned a small camera repair shop into one of the more unexpected names in the photography accessories space.
How the M-Edition started it all
The Casio M-Edition launched in January 2026 and caught the photography world off guard. Built on the bones of a Casio AE1200, the watch swaps the stock face for a custom red dial that echoes the signature red dot that Leica has used on its M cameras since the early 1980s. The red extends to the LEDs behind the watch light, a detail PPP Cameras describes as reminiscent of a camera’s internal light meter. A leather strap replaces the standard rubber, mirroring the leatherette texture that wraps the body of Leica’s rangefinders.
The first batch sold out quickly. The second batch followed the same pattern. PPP Cameras has since announced a third production run with units expected to ship in May 2026. The M-Edition is available in Chrome and Black, though both versions have sold out again at the time of writing. Both are now priced at 160 pounds, roughly $212.
Photography outlets picked it up quickly, praising PPP Cameras for its knack with custom camera gear and framing the M-Edition as an accessible nod to Leica’s design language. Coverage spread through camera forums, photography blogs, and Threads within days. The AE1200 base already had a following among watch collectors who know it as the Casio Royale, and layering a Leica twist on top of that gave the story extra traction.
The N168 brings Nikon into the picture
The N168 takes the same hand-customization approach and points it at a different camera legacy. Where the M-Edition channels Leica’s red and silver refinement, the N168 leans into the black and yellow color scheme that Nikon has used across its branding, logos, and camera straps for decades.
The watch features a striking yellow display that echoes Nikon’s signature look. PPP Cameras pairs it with a canvas strap stitched in yellow, pulling directly from the woven camera straps that ship with Nikon bodies. The overall effect lands somewhere between a vintage digital watch and a piece of fan art that actually works on a wrist.
Three editions are available for pre-order. The Chrome and Titanium versions are both priced at 150 pounds, roughly $200. The Black edition runs slightly higher at 170 pounds, approximately $225. All three ship mid to late May 2026. Each piece is hand-customized by Pozella himself, which explains both the limited quantities and the pre-order model.
The person behind the watches
Pozella is not a watchmaker by training. He started volunteering in a charity shop as a teenager, where donated cameras that nobody could fix became his personal workshop. “The people who ran the place told me that, if they were broken, I could take them home to see if I could mend them,” he told Monocle magazine. The ones that were impossible to fix, the shop let him keep.
That early obsession with disassembly and repair turned into PPP Cameras, a full-service operation that now handles camera repairs, custom repaints, film processing, and a retail shop. The watch line is the newest branch, and the reception has clearly outpaced what a one-person customization operation can produce. The sold-out M-Edition runs and the pre-order structure for the N168 both point to demand that Pozella is scaling carefully rather than quickly.
PPP Cameras previously developed a screen cover for the Leica M10 and M11 that blocks the rear display, forcing photographers to shoot without chimping at their images. Pozella designed it because he found the screen “an unnecessary distraction” that changed how he approached taking pictures. That same philosophy of stripping things back to what matters shows up in the watches, which skip smart features entirely in favor of personality and craft.
Where these fit in the photography accessories market
Camera-inspired watches are not entirely new. Artra Designs launched its Camera One last year, a mechanical watch with photography design cues starting at $887. Nodus released the Obscura, the first mechanical watch to integrate an exposure gauge based on the Sunny 16 rule. Both target photographers willing to spend serious money on a timepiece that reflects their craft.
The PPP Cameras approach sits at the opposite end of the price spectrum. At $200 to $225 for the N168 and $212 for the M-Edition, both land in the same price range as a single leather camera strap from Leica. The M-Edition is built on the Casio AE1200, a proven model with a reliable quartz movement and water resistance. What Pozella adds is visual identity and a connection to camera culture that mass-produced watches cannot replicate.
The timing works in PPP Cameras’ favor. Etsy sellers and independent modders have built a cottage industry around personalized Casio builds. Few have tied their work so directly to a specific enthusiast community the way Pozella has with photographers.
Pricing and availability
The Casio M-Edition is priced at 160 pounds ($212) for both the Chrome and Black editions. Both are currently sold out, with the next batch available for pre-order and expected to ship in May 2026.
Price: From £150 (Around $199)
Where to Buy: PPP
The N168 is available for pre-order in three editions. Chrome and Titanium are priced at 150 pounds ($199). The Black edition is 170 pounds ($225). All N168 orders ship mid to late May 2026. Orders can be placed at pppcameras.co.uk.
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(as of March 14, 2026 10:55 GMT -05:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
