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AU Financial Review

The Trump effect and everything else you need to know now about watches

The man currently having an outsized impact on the watch world is not some latter-day Abraham-Louis Breguet or famed horologist, but rather one Donald John Trump. The US president's on-again, off-again threat of tariffs has caused a mighty swing in Swiss watch exports to the world's largest market. Wholesalers and retailers scrambled to beat a possible 31 per cent impost, sending imports up 50 per cent in April (totalling CHF851 million or $1.6 billion) only for the figure to plummet to CHF268 million the following month. The swing is significant given that after more than a decade of Hong Kong and China leading demand, America emerged as the dominant player in 2021. To date this year, it has imported triple the value of the next largest market – Japan – and more than Hong Kong and China combined.