‘He Likes Swiss Watches!’: Trump Shocks Horology With Tariffs

(Bloomberg) — The Trump administration jolted Switzerland with punitive new tariffs. Few seemed to be more taken aback than buyers and sellers of Swiss watches.

Oliver R. Müller, a luxury watch consultant based in Switzerland, was indignant at the blow that tariffs will likely inflict on the country’s watch industry, which has recently been relying on demand from the US to offset fading sales in China.

“It’s another burden that comes on top of many others,” Müller said in an interview.

The administration’s 39% tariff on all Swiss imports, if passed along from sought-after brands like Rolex, Patek Philippe and Omega to distributors in the US, would likely lead to retail-price increases of 12% to 14%, Müller estimated. That would add about $1,000 to the $9,500 price of a stainless steel Rolex Submariner.

Swiss watches are a longstanding signal of affluence, and over the years the president has been seen wearing various high-end timepieces, including a Rolex. Members of his family and his administration have also sported Swiss watches in public. For observers, that made the 39% levy all the more vexing.

“On top of it all, he likes Swiss watches!” Müller said.

High-end watches have been drawing a growing American fan base in recent years, with obsessive owners showing off their collections on social media. The chain retailer Watches of Switzerland, which has locations in tony shopping areas across the US, said in a statement that it would “continue to work closely with our brand partners to mitigate any potential impact.”

Trump administration officials didn’t seem to be focused on watches when they put the tariffs in place, instead citing pharmaceuticals as a driving force in the trade imbalance between the countries. The US has no large luxury-watch making industry of its own.

Online watch enthusiasts have long clocked the make and reference numbers of the high-end watches of Trump officials. FBI Director Kash Patel has been spotted wearing a Breitling. Former DOGE czar Elon Musk has a TAG Heuer with the SpaceX logo.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio — who in a previous political life declared that Trump, had he not inherited a fortune from his father, would be “selling watches in Manhattan” — has worn a Rolex, too.

There were already warning signs in the Swiss watch industry before Trump’s tariffs. Exports fell 5.6% in June compared with a year earlier, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, a trade group. That was driven by “significant declines” in sales in the US, as well as Japan and Hong Kong, the group said in a monthly report.

Trump lent his name and signature to a line of MAGA-coded timepieces last year, including a $100,000 “Swiss-made” Tourbillon.

The makers of the watch, a firm registered as TheBestWatchesonEarth LLC, didn’t respond to a request for comment sent through an intermediary. The site states that the watches “are not political and have nothing to do with any political campaign.”

–With assistance from Chris Rovzar.

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