The Swiss watch-making group Swatch said on Monday it is buying German watch manufacturer Glashuetter for an undisclosed sum.
Swatch Group is acquiring all the shares of the German company based near Dresden with immediate effect, it said.
"The brand Glashuette Original with its exclusive timepieces will be integrated into the existing range of watch brands of the Swatch Group," it said.
Swatch brands already include high quality makes such as Breguet, Blancpain, Omega, Longines and Rado.
The 150 staff of Glashuetter will keep their jobs and the company will remain in Glashuette near Dresden, Swatch said.
Swatch spokeswoman Beatrice Howald said Glashuetter Uhrenbetrieb produced fewer than 10,000 watches a year, adding that the price of the transaction was comparable to that paid in 1992 to buy Blancpain.
Swatch Group, which at the time was still called Socit suisse de microlectronique et d'horlogerie (SMH), paid between 60 million and 80 million Swiss francs to buy Blancpain SA and its partner Frederic Piguet SA.
Glashuetter's director Heinz Pfeiffer will remain at the helm of the German brand and the German company will be integrated into Swatch's structure, Swatch said.
Glashuetter was founded in 1845 by Ferdinand Aldolph Lange, who set up in the same year A.Lange and Soehne, which was bought by Swiss luxury goods company Richemont in July -- BIEL, Switzerland(AFP)
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