Community Stories

Hey you 'muricans ... get those Swiss watches pronto

Larry S
Posts
13,134
Likes
52,167
Archer Archer
Well, I can't speak for other countries, but trade statistics between US and Canada are pretty clear. The US buys more goods from Canada than we do from the US. However our population is around 40 million, and the US is 340 million, so is that not expected? You buy and consume far more than we do, just because of your size.

I did see a breakdown on a per capita basis not long ago - US consumers buy something around $1,200/year of Canadian goods. Canadian consumers buy something like $9,000/year of US goods. And somehow we are the bad guys?

Again if you count services, the US has a trade surplus with Canada that is on top of those physical goods...
I certainly don’t support punishing Canada or Mexico, not interested in conquering Greenland. I’m from the rust belt. I get the anger and frustration, but this is as I stated before … a s..t show. You make your own calls re your business. Just remember many of us did not vote for him and are doing what we can. Sadly, many in congress have morphed into invertebrates.
 
Archer
Posts
27,909
Likes
71,060
Larry S Larry S
I certainly don’t support punishing Canada or Mexico, not interested in conquering Greenland. I’m from the rust belt. I get the anger and frustration, but this is as I stated before … a s..t show. You make your own calls re your business. Just remember many of us did not vote for him and are doing what we can. Sadly, many in congress have morphed into invertebrates.
I understand. It's going to get worse (much worse) before it gets better.

Stellantis here just announced that they are shutting down their plants in Ontario and in Mexico due to these tariffs. This will of course mean that any plants supporting these in the US will also be affected. What goes around, comes around. No one here takes any joy in it - it's senseless.
 
gatorcpa
Posts
12,733
Likes
17,226
Archer Archer
it's senseless.
And that's all anyone needs to know.

However, our so-called leaders are clueless.
gatorcpa
 
Dan S
Posts
21,596
Likes
48,937
LesXL LesXL
So new watches more expensive... Interests will shift more to vintage and a new bubble will start
In principle this makes sense, but I think we might also see people delaying discretionary purchases in general. There are a number of grail watches that have been on my radar screen for years, but I'm not sure if I'd jump on a $20k purchase at the moment.
 
LesXL
Posts
3,578
Likes
37,525
Dan S Dan S
In principle this makes sense, but I think we might also see people delaying discretionary purchases in general. There are a number of grail watches that have been on my radar screen for years, but I'm not sure if I'd jump on a $20k purchase at the moment
He says... Pull the trigger 😀
PXL_20250303_181949772.webp
 
dsio
Posts
30,795
Likes
36,250
gatorcpa gatorcpa
Ash -

Since presumably you paid a tariff rate on the watch when you imported it into Australia, the buyer would pay the rate on imports from Australia to their country.

It does not matter where the watch was originally made. For tariff purposes, it is being imported from Australia.
gatorcpa
OK that’s good to know, so Australia will actually be one of the lowest taxed at 10%.

I was just wondering due to the watch worksheets asking for country of origin on each part of the watch, it used to be just the watch overall but I found out shipping a watch a week ago that FedEx’s worksheet had updated to ask for a country of origin breakdown on movement, case, strap and battery so I had thought that might be relevant but good to know its just where we’re actually shipping it from.
 
watchyouwant
Posts
5,393
Likes
9,207
Interesting. Deleting ALL of my posts incl. Pictures goes very far. So far, I was not used to that behaviour on the Forum. Many other posts here without actual watch content are still up . This Forum is called Open Discussion. Every of my posts are factual and was for providing Background information for Watch relevant Tariffs, that affect us all.
 
ErichPryde
Posts
3,042
Likes
5,887
watchyouwant watchyouwant
Interesting. Deleting ALL of my posts incl. Pictures goes very far. So far, I was not used to that behaviour on the Forum. Many other posts here without actual watch content are still up . This Forum is called Open Discussion. Every of my posts are factual and was for providing Background information for Watch relevant Tariffs, that affect us all.

We have a rule against outright political discussion. Many of us have carried on a conversation about this topic without wandering too close to that line, which is presumably why those posts are still up. But, considering that this is a private forum I'd be ok if our moderators decided to remove my posts as well as I understand they... skirt the rules to a degree.

It's my hope we can continue to have constructive conversation about these difficult topics, but I'm sure having to actively moderate posts is part of the reason other forums have outright banned the tariff discussion.
 
Trev
Posts
2,179
Likes
2,576
ErichPryde ErichPryde
We have a rule against outright political discussion. Many of us have carried on a conversation about this topic without wandering too close to that line, which is presumably why those posts are still up. But, considering that this is a private forum I'd be ok if our moderators decided to remove my posts as well as I understand they... skirt the rules to a degree.

It's my hope we can continue to have constructive conversation about these difficult topics, but I'm sure having to actively moderate posts is part of the reason other forums have outright banned the tariff discussion.
Tariff policies and their impact are certainly relevant to the hobby and we'd like to enable discussion of those. Sprinkling in insults, name calling directed towards (any) politicians is best left for Facebook. Same goes for memes and other slop that's divisive and totally unproductive on a watch forum.
 
dsio
Posts
30,795
Likes
36,250
watchyouwant watchyouwant
Interesting. Deleting ALL of my posts incl. Pictures goes very far. So far, I was not used to that behaviour on the Forum. Many other posts here without actual watch content are still up . This Forum is called Open Discussion. Every of my posts are factual and was for providing Background information for Watch relevant Tariffs, that affect us all.
We’ve always had a no politics rule, it’s too time consume to moderate, ruins friendships, and bleeds into watch discussions as people end up sniping at eachother there as well.

As Trev said, the tariffs are relevant to us as watch buyers and we’re not going to do the Timezone thing where prices are verboten as that’s silly, but fighting about it here isn’t going to do anything to change policy, and we will remove that.
 
Walrus
Posts
10,024
Likes
47,981
dsio dsio
We’ve always had a no politics rule, it’s too time consume to moderate, ruins friendships, and bleeds into watch discussions as people end up sniping at eachother there as well.

As Trev said, the tariffs are relevant to us as watch buyers and we’re not going to do the Timezone thing where prices are verboten as that’s silly, but fighting about it here isn’t going to do anything to change policy, and we will remove that.
That had gone by the second post. I like the no politics rule.
 
Archer
Posts
27,909
Likes
71,060
wagudc wagudc
I completely understand your logic in your point 1. @Archer. It seems to be an excellent example of "tariffs hurt everyone." Regarding point 2, I am saddened and embarrassed how our country is treating our longest and best allies.

Back to watches, I believe that the de minimus exemption on goods valued under $800 still applies to imports from all countries except China. Can anyone else confirm this? I have bought a number of watches for less than $800 internationally and have not had to pay any tariffs. I hope that this will continue.
On the de minimus exemption, it looks like that is going away once the postal service has the resources in place to check and collect duty on all incoming shipments.

https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/de-minimis-china-trump-elimination-tariffs/744313/
 
wagudc
Posts
4,721
Likes
11,917
Archer Archer
On the de minimus exemption, it looks like that is going away once the postal service has the resources in place to check and collect duty on all incoming shipments.

https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/de-minimis-china-trump-elimination-tariffs/744313/

That is unfortunate. This article has some interesting points, especially the quote below
https://www.cato.org/blog/high-costs-eliminating-de-minimis-shipping

Using the agency’s Workload Staffing Model which it reported to Congress in 2023, Oxford Economics estimates that CBP is already nearly 5,000 officers short. It is likewise estimated that eliminating the de minimis exemption entirely would necessitate hiring and training an additional 22,000 CBP officers. The additional paperwork burden would be immense—not to mention the additional wait times for consumers.
 
Dsloan
Posts
3,314
Likes
22,208
texasmade texasmade
Did the USPS get DOGE’d? Enforcement will be a problem if there’s no one enforcing the tariffs.
I believe there are some things in the works to gut the USPS
 
pdxleaf
Posts
5,289
Likes
18,369
What's the impact on duty free ports, like airports? I've not paid much attention to them as I live in a state with no sales tax and previously duties were not an issue.
 
texasmade
Posts
2,460
Likes
2,588
Dsloan Dsloan
I believe there are some things in the works to gut the USPS
I texted some friends about this who follow this more than me. They said the original de minimus elimination was delayed because CBP/USPS had no way to really enforce it. I can't see them enforcing it now with DOGE happening.
 
gatorcpa
Posts
12,733
Likes
17,226
pdxleaf pdxleaf
What's the impact on duty free ports, like airports?
Shouldn’t be any impact. You buy there, you don’t pay local sales tax or VAT. That’s why you have to show a passport and international flight ticket.

You still have to declare your purchases at customs in your country when you return home. That’s where tariffs are assessed on personal purchases.
gatorcpa
 
Porteroso
Posts
205
Likes
645
Dsloan Dsloan
I believe there are some things in the works to gut the USPS
Political types have been saying that for a long time. What they are trying to do is make the USPS profitable and modernized.

On tariffs, they will likely not last. Tariffs are the purview of Congress, and if things get bad enough, Congress can end the President's ability to set tariffs at any time. So far several countries have agreed to remove tariffs on US goods, and as long as the President shows he will negotiate in good faith, this will be a bumpy train ride back to normalcy.

There is even Republican support in Congress to not tariff Canada specifically, so I expect that to be resolved soon.

All that to say, it does seem dire for our watch collecting, but worst case scenarios rarely come about. A lot of bluster, but things will likely be settled down in a month or 2. Or they won't, and not only will things cost more, the dollar be worth less and we will be in a global recession!

Good luck out there! The world is crazy!
 
44 More Posts...
Sign up or log in to reply...

Similar threads

Tako Yaki

Some history, first Swiss watches in Japan

Tako Yaki Open Discussion
S
Shay
Posts
4
Views
882
Alphasports

Interesting article BA1110D Swiss watches

Alphasports Unique Watches & Complications
lightweight
lightweight
Posts
1
Views
940
The Father

Apple Watch 31 million units Swiss Watches 21 million

The Father Open Discussion
Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
Posts
51
Views
3K
Gurn

Sleeper Swiss watches

Gurn Open Discussion
Screwbacks
Screwbacks
Posts
31
Views
6K
Kdog1971

Story in today's Japan Times. Japanese brands making a run at Swiss Watches.

Kdog1971 Modern Omega Watches
Reddy_Kilowatt
Reddy_Kilowatt
Posts
38
Views
3K
SuperSaver

Swiss Watches vs Casio? Same function, 100x price?

SuperSaver Modern Omega Watches
karalhoin
karalhoin
Posts
48
Views
5K