Joshua Kirby
Thu, December 18, 2025
Watch exports to the U.S. were affected by President Trump’s trade tariffs. - manuel ausloos/Reuters
Swiss watch exports continued to decline last month, leaving the key industry on track to book a fall over a year marked by a sharp impact from President Trump’s trade tariffs.
Exports to the key U.S. market dropped by more than half in November compared with the same month last year, according to figures from Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, or FH, released Thursday. That dragged total exports down by a total 7.3% on year, with other markets redressing some of the American drag. For the year to date, total exports are down 2.2%, making a decline likely for the year as a whole when data are set out next month.
Switzerland came into Trump’s trade crosshairs this year, with crippling tariffs set out on the Alpine nation over the summer. Those duties were later cut to 15%, the same level as Switzlerland’s European Union neighbors, after a diplomatic push from business leaders that included Johann Rupert, the chairman of luxury-goods group Richemont, whose watchmaker brands were set to suffer from the heavy import tariffs.
Still, U.S. tariffs “continued to impact exports to the region” last month, analysts at brokerage Bernstein wrote in a note to investors. That was likely due to a combination of a continued snapback from a rush to stuff U.S. inventories before the higher tariffs were implemented and wariness about further imports given lingering uncertainty around tariffs, the analysts said.
Write to Joshua Kirby at joshua.kirby@wsj.com
Swiss watch exports continued to decline last month, leaving the key industry on track to book a fall over a year marked by a sharp impact from President Trump’s trade tariffs.
Exports to the key U.S. market dropped by more than half in November compared with the same month last year, according to figures from Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, or FH, released Thursday. That dragged total exports down by a total 7.3% on year, with other markets redressing some of the American drag. For the year to date, total exports are down 2.2%, making a decline likely for the year as a whole when data are set out next month.
Switzerland came into Trump’s trade crosshairs this year, with crippling tariffs set out on the Alpine nation over the summer. Those duties were later cut to 15%, the same level as Switzlerland’s European Union neighbors, after a diplomatic push from business leaders that included Johann Rupert, the chairman of luxury-goods group Richemont, whose watchmaker brands were set to suffer from the heavy import tariffs.
Still, U.S. tariffs “continued to impact exports to the region” last month, analysts at brokerage Bernstein wrote in a note to investors. That was likely due to a combination of a continued snapback from a rush to stuff U.S. inventories before the higher tariffs were implemented and wariness about further imports given lingering uncertainty around tariffs, the analysts said.
Write to Joshua Kirby at joshua.kirby@wsj.com
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