Swiss watchmaking: Breitling boss welcomes US tariff cut

The new US-Swiss trade deal shows that "Team Switzerland", with the support of the Swiss economy, has been effective, said Breitling boss Georges Kern. Keystone-SDA

The recent decision to lower US tariffs on Swiss imports from 39% to 15% is particularly good news for the watch industry, says Georges Kern, head of the Breitling luxury watch brand.

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The new deal shows that “Team Switzerland”, with the support of the Swiss economy, has been effective, Kern told the AWP news agency on Monday.

At the same time, the Breitling CEO expressed disappointment that Swiss watch manufacturers were not completely exempt and that the original tariff rate of 2% no longer applies.

“Our products do not take jobs away from anyone in the United States,” Kern said. “We are exclusively Swiss made and this is one of the reasons why our products are also bought in the US.”

Strong US growth expected after shutdown

The US market nonetheless remains “very strong” with “robust” growth at the moment, the Breitling CEO said.

“Thanks to our broad presence in the US, we are very confident about future developments. The temporary consumer reluctance we observed in autumn was mainly due to the government shutdown, not the new tariffs.”

For weeks, many US federal institutions and administrations remained closed due to the government shutdown. This led to uncertainty among US consumers.

Now that things have changed, Kern expects a “swift recovery” in the US and predicts Breitling to return to double-digit growth. The partnership entered into with the US professional football league NFL should help, Kern added.

The non-binding framework US-Swiss trade deal, announced on Friday, promises a lower US import tariff rate of 15% for
Switzerland – down from 39% – in return for $200 billion in
investments by Swiss companies in the US. Officials aim to finalise the trade deal by the first quarter of 2026, the White House said.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

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