Union Glashütte
Germany · Founded 1893
Founded in Glashütte, Saxony in 1893 by Johannes Dürrstein, a Dresden watch merchant who had previously been an exclusive distributor for A. Lange & Söhne before starting his own manufacture. Built a broad range from affordable pocket watches to complicated collector pieces with global distribution. The Depression-era collapse of Glashütte's watch industry forced Union to stop production in 1926; the firm was struck from the commercial register in 1936. In 1951 the surviving Glashütte watchmakers, Union included, were folded into the East German state combine VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe (GUB), and Union ceased to exist as an independent brand through German reunification. Following GUB's 1994 privatization, the Union name was revived and Union Uhrenfabrik GmbH was newly established in 1996 as a subsidiary alongside the reborn Glashütte Original; the Swatch Group acquired the group in 2000. A 2008 repositioning narrowed the brand to exclusively mechanical, 'Made in Glashütte'-certified watches sold as the accessible sibling to Glashütte Original, sharing the same three-quarter-plate and Glashütte-stripe finishing tradition at a lower price point (roughly €1,000-€9,000 retail). Operates today as an independent Swatch Group brand with a small dedicated workforce (~65) at its Glashütte site.