How Eastern Germany’s Watchmaking Capital Is Beating Switzerland

The east German village of Glashuette doesn’t look like much: just a handful of streets stretching up and down a narrow valley from a bare station platform, where trains depart once an hour for the 45-minute trip to Dresden. Scratch a bit deeper, though, and you’ll find that the town of 7,000 is home to the greatest concentration of world-class watchmakers outside of Switzerland - with a business that’s growing even as Swiss producers retrench.

Glashuette produced more than 32,000 watches last year, with a total value of at least 500 million euros, according to analyst estimates. These aren’t Swatches: The town’s 10 watchmakers tend toward the high end, and the priciest local producer, A. Lange & Soehne, has built a reputation that rivals those of giants such as Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. Some of its watches top 1.9 million euros ($2.1 million), and its average price is roughly 50,000 euros.