(Bloomberg) -- Luxury watches from the German village of Glashuette are gaining protected status similar to bubbly wine coming from the Champagne region in France.
The country's upper house of parliament on Friday signed off on the so-called Glashuette Decree, ensuring that only timepieces made in the town of about 7,000 people in the eastern state of Saxony are permitted to display the vaunted name.
Located about three hours south of Berlin in former ore-mining hills near the Czech border, the town boasts the greatest concentration of world-class watchmakers outside Switzerland. A. Lange & Soehne, the priciest local producer, has built a reputation that rivals those of Swiss giants such as Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet.
Read more: How Eastern Germany's Watchmaking Capital Is Beating Switzerland
Knives from Solingen have been protected by a similar order for decades. The rules guarantee that products bearing that name fulfill certain criteria on local content.
The protected status will help the fight against counterfeit products as well as secure jobs in Glashuette's watch-making industry, Saxony's Premier Michael Kretschmer said in an interview on ZDF television.
“With a quality product like a watch, for which people pay thousands of euros, jobs are only safe when that quality is in there,” he said. “That's why it has to be protected.”
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