A couple of years ago I was at Leica's booth at NAB talking to a rep about one of their Sumicron-C lenses. For the nominal fee of $100,000.00US, they will make you a set of lenses by hand. Of course, it takes 18-24 months to make them. For an additional $75,000.00US, they will nearly double the number of lenses in the kit. Apparently, if there is the slightest defect in the glass, they do not attempt to polish/grind it. They simply crush it and start with a new one. Hand made seems to be the way it's done. Maybe they have already learned what Tesla is learning. Automation is not always the best way.
Not to rain on Leica too much (I love and had a whole M system) but I experienced some serious backfocus issues with their Summilux 50mm which despite two visits to their factory (which took two months) they were unable to fully rectify.
I’m not the only one, photographer Ming Thein has complained about the sample variation of Leica’s hand made lenses too.
The hand crafted nature of their range finder system is far from perfect and for the price it really should be better.
https://leicastoremiami.com/collections/leica-summicron-c-le...