- Title: Swiss watch sellers reliant on U.S. market rocked by Trump tariffs
- Date: 3rd April 2025
- Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (APRIL 3, 2025) (REUTERS) ROLEX SIGN ROLEX HOUSE / PATEK PHILIPPE STALL GIANT WATCH IN ROLEX STALL ROLEX WATCH ON DISPLAY / GIANT WATCH PEOPLE WALKING IN FRONT OF PATEK PHILIPPE STALL PATEK PHILIPPE SIGN PEOPLE LOOKING AT WATCHES ON DISPLAY PATEK PHILIPPE WATCHES ON DISPLAY (SOUNDBITE) (English) OWNER OF A VINTAGE WATCHES SHOP IN GENEVA, SACHA DAVIDOFF,
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: Geneva Switzerland USA fair luxury tarrifs watches
- Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- City: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- Country: Switzerland
- Topics: Europe,Government/Politics,International Trade
- Reuters ID: LVA001395703042025RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Sacha Davidoff had three watches ready to be shipped to the U.S. this week. He received a warning on Monday (April 1) from the shipping company that the tax rate may change following an announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump on Tariff's.
By Thursday (April 3) he was scrambling to work out if the vintage Swiss watches he exports from his store in the old town of Geneva, that average a retail price of 20,000 CHF ($23,272.05), may be subject to an extra 6,000 CHF ($6,981.62) in tax.
"And then we woke up to the news of 31%. Everyone said, and now I'm like trying to Google what does tariff mean exactly? How does this work ?," he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump presented figures on Monday saying the United States would apply a 31% tariff on imports from Switzerland.
The U.S. is Switzerland's single-biggest export market for watches, representing 16.8% of total exports worth 4,3 billion CHF ($50.03 billion), according to Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.
Davidoff sells on average 250 vintage watches by Rolex, Piaget and Patek Philippe a year and the U.S. accounts for 60% of his business. With rising costs of raw materials like gold driving up watch prices, tariff's may impact prices further.
"It doesn't seem real, almost. It feels like we're going back to like Cold War,” he added.
“It's just going to put the market into a complete, you know, either freeze totally, just kind of what do we do, or free fall.”
At a large conference hall in Geneva on Thursday (April 3) where thousands of people flocked to admire the latest products being promoted by major Swiss brands like Rolex, Cartier and Chophard, people inside the industry are nervous.
"It's been tense. Some meetings with Americans have been cancelled....Sales will surely be down. The year ahead doesn't look very promising for the watch industry," Clement Fehrenbacher from Le Cercle told Reuters.
The Neuchatel-based company manufactures the small parts inside watches, known as movements and complications, for big watch brands.
Watch makers and sellers are particularly concerned given that the U.S. overtook China as the top destination for Swiss watches since the 2021 Covid pandemic.
"The US market is absolutely critical as far as the Swiss watch industry is concerned. It's by far the number one market, more than 6 billion Swiss francs ($7 billion) in total export for 2024. And, you know, with the overall situation in China, a potential slowdown domestically in China, I think that you can feel some nervousness around," the founder and CEO of Digital Luxury Group, David Sadigh, told Reuters.
Between 2023-2024 exports of Swiss watches to the U.S. increased by 5% on the previous year as the Chinese market fell by 25% to 2 billion CHF ($2.33 billion)- according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.
Though entry level Swiss watch brands such as Tag Heuer, which have a strong presence in the U.S. market, may be the worst hit, the impact could be across the board, according to Singh.
After an already difficult start to the year in terms of sales, Switzerland’s big luxury watch makers are staying silent. One of the country's longest-running horologists, Vacheron Constantin, marked their 270th birthday this year by presenting a new wristwatch at the Watches and Wonders show, boasting more than 41 complications and 1,521 components crowns.
The company however, when approached, did not want to speak about tariffs. Laurent Ferrier also told Reuters it didn’t want to speak, while MB&F, which sold a portion of its 396 watches valued at more than 100,000 CHF ($116,360.25) to the U.S. last year said that no on was available to talk.
Behind the steady flows of champagne and million of dollars of watches lined up at the conference, companies linked to the watch industry are bracing for impact.
"There might be an impact on sales volumes in the watch-making industry…The final impact could be quite significant,” Guillaume Kuntz, the co-founder of Watch Certificate told Reuters.
(Cecile Mantovani) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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