There were other factors? For a time under soviet rule, Ruhla had the largest watch factory in the world. And UMF Ruhla collapsed all by itself within a couple years of reunification. Almost as though their viability was an artificial creation of the state.

That's generally what people will say about any east german company, and it's wrong. Like all public DDR companies, it got turned over to the corrupt trust in charge of privatizing the economy. It got split into around 40 companies, only one of which made watches, and sold off for cheap.