Dr. Wild was the principal industrial designer for Leitz GmbH, and Kern & Co. Founder and master innovator Heinrich Wild revolutionised surveying with smaller, more practical, yet more accurate instruments, such as surveying instruments, microscopes, instruments for photogrammetry and early aerial photography, among others.
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Swiss businessman, industrial designer and inventor Dr. Heinrich Wild.
The company he founded has repeatedly been the source of major innovations, such as the first portable theodolite, the optoelectronic distance meter in 1968; the first electronic theodolite with digital data recording in 1977; the first surveying system based on GPS signals in 1984; the first digital level in 1990; the first hand-held laser distance meter in 1993.
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Four different companies that share the Leica Brand: Leica Camera, Leica Microsystems, Leica Biosystems and Leica Geosystems.
In 1908, having invented a military rangefinder and convinced the renowned German firm Zeiss to manufacture it, Wild moved to Jena and became head of the new Zeiss branch responsible for surveying instruments. Wild returned to Switzerland after the First World War.
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The Wild Heerbrugg NK2 optic was the mainstay of the (geodetic) land surveyor for many years. With its reversible level telescope it allowed compensation of measurement errors.
On 26 April 1921 the company Heinrich Wild, Werkstätte für Feinmechanik und Optik was founded in Heerbrugg by three Swiss men; the surveyor and inventor Heinrich Wild from Glarus, the investor Colonel Jacob Schmidheiny from Balgach, and the geologist Dr. Robert Helbling from Flums.
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Heinrich Wild, the investor Colonel Jacob Schmidheiny and the geologist Dr. Robert Helbling
Following the economic depression of the late 1920’s, in 1932 Wild parted ways with the company he had founded and became associated with Kern & Co, inventing the DK2 theodolite for them, and thus rescuing what had become a moribund business. Under his guidance until 1951, Kern & Co. grew substantially, and was later managed by his son Heinrich Wild until 1980.
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The apprenticeship department of WILD in 1930
Shortly after the 25th anniversary of Dr. Wild’s death, the Wild Herbrugg company merged with Leitz in 1987, to form Swiss Wild Leitz AG, and then acquired the Kern & Co business the following year from the founding families, thus re-uniting the three companies that had been associated with Heinrich Wild in his entire career. In 1989 the combined company had over 8000 employees and revenues in excess of one billion Swiss Francs. In 1990 it was sold via an IPO on the Swiss Stock Exchange under the Leica Holding name.
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Flags of Leica and Wild Heerbrugg stand side by side, representing a legacy of precision and innovation in surveying technology.
