For those pending sales to renew wardrobe or the offers of the day in the supermarket, the one that has been mounted on the networks – and in the surroundings of the Alps – will be ridiculous for the tariffs of 39% that the president of the United States has imposed on Swiss exports. This is the highest tariff of the US by the US among developed countries, with the argument of the bulky commercial deficit that Washington maintains with the Helvetic Confederation (39,000 million dollars in 2024, for a country of just nine million inhabitants). Especially because what suggests the Swiss most (except chocolate) is not available to any pocket. Golden bears – eojo, only in a small format of no more than one kilo, central banks can breathe calm – high -end cosmetic creams and luxury watches are the main victims of the tariff war. The decision has shaken the Swiss watch industry and the luxury market in general, already beaten by the loss of enthusiasm of Chinese consumers for these products. As much as this sector is governed by norms other than those of supply and demand, manufacturers must now adjust strategies and decide how they apply the new tariff, if they limit it to the US market, if they assume a part of the increase, if they distribute it throughout the world. It is a market with its own standards. In fact, luxury watches are what in economics is known as a veblen good: by increasing its price also increases its demand, because it becomes considered a more exclusive good. That explains why great watches brands, such as Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet or Vacheron Constantin limit their annual production to a few thousand parts. It is not only by technical capacity, but above all to maintain the exclusivity and value of the brand. After the pandemic, the most classic models of the great manufacturers lived a real bum and for some models, such as Nautilus or Aquanaut, there are waiting lists for several years. The measure entered into force on the 7th and immediately the networks were filled with vendors offering opportunities in second -hand watches, which are not affected by the tariff and that they see revalue and much their pieces. They also collected some of the contributed models that Donald Trump or the Greubel Forsey of $ 900,000 that the Founder of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, looked. The Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, visited the maximum security prison of El Salvador, where the US has deported more than 250 immigrants, wearing a gold daytone rolex. With the new tariff, the $ 50,000 that the exclusive model cost so far would be 65,000, as remembered @Pjaicomo's account in X. The truth is that one would think that if tariffs should be imposed, the logical thing would be on luxury goods and not on basic products. In fact, Rolex moved to Switzerland as a result of another tariff measure, at the beginning of the 20th century. After World War I, the British Government imposed a lien to imported watches and the export of precious metals. A decade before, Hans Wilsdorf had founded a company with his brother -in -law (Wilsdorf & Davis) specialized in the importation of the great Swiss invention of the time: Correa watches, a modernity for a world that mostly spent pocket watches. Over the years he recorded the Rolex brand to insert it into the spheres of these watches and gained some fame with the precision of their chronometers. With tax changes, Wilsdorf decided to move the company directly to Switzerland, first to Bern and then to Geneva. Nothing has been bad since then: the current value of the company is around 17,000 million dollars. Will survive this.
