The watchmaker Swatch Group AG agreed to pay $1 billion to acquire watch and jewelry brand Harry Winston, The Associated Press reported Monday.

The Switzerland-based company, and the country's biggest watchmaker, settled to pay $750 million for Canada's Harry Winston Diamond Corp and will acquire as much as $250 million in debt as well. The deal includes Swatch's ownership of Harry Winston's production company in Geneva and more than 500 employees around the world.

Harry Winston Diamond Corp.'s chairman, Robert Gannicott, said his company would change its name to Dominion Diamond Corporation, the AP noted. Dominion Diamond is known as one of the largest listed pure diamond miners in the world.

Swatch Group is already the world's biggest watchmaker by sales due to brands such as Omega and its colorful Swatch plastic watches, Reuters reported. The diamond industry is still dominated by Anglo American-owned De Beers and Russia's Alrosa but the high-end jewelry market has Richemont on top with its Cartier brand.

The deal reportedly helps Harry Winston focus on their acquired diamond mines; the company bought EKATI mine from BHP Billiton last year.

"With Harry Winston, the focus was going to be moving back to mining, so getting a good price (for the luxury arm) was key to that," Charles Stanley analyst Kieron Hodgson said. "This price facilitates the acquisition of EKATI, but also creates something of a war chest for future acquisitions."

For Swatch, the Harry Winston acquisition and its well-known name has the potential to generate more than $1.1 billion in sales and a 250 million net profit in about four to five years, Swatch chief executive Nick Hayek told Reuters in an interview.

Switch's partnership with the U.S. brand Tiffany's ended in 2011 with the companies suing each other.