Swiss watch exports in December 2025: The valley of tears seems to have been crossed
It is hard to imagine the magnitude of the blow to the Swiss watch industry when the US retroactively reduced its tariffs on Swiss goods to 15 percent as of November 14. The effects are already evident in the export statistics for December 2025.
However, 15 percent is still significantly more than was due before the 39 percent shock: namely 0.6 percent.
And nothing is set in stone yet. So far, it is merely a declaration of intent between Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the US at the political level, not a legally binding trade agreement.
And Donald Trump just announced what he thinks about this at the World Economic Forum in Davos:
“And then all hell broke loose,” said the US president in his speech on the imposition of 39 percent tariffs on Swiss imports in Davos.
“And I had visits from everyone. Rolex came to me. They all came to me. But I realized that I had to reduce it because I didn’t want to hurt people, I didn’t want to hurt them. And we lowered it for them, you know, a lower level doesn’t mean it won’t go up again, but we lowered it to a lower level. But now they’re paying the price.”
This quote from Trump does not sound like a predictable commitment.
Swiss watch exports recover after four months of decline
Nevertheless, the memorandum of understanding and the retroactive reduction in US tariffs from 39 to 15 percent as of November 14 appear to have had an effect. Following a massive 52 percent slump in exports to the US in November last year, December saw a significant increase of 19.1 percent compared to the same month last year.
Overall, exports rose by 3.3 percent compared with December 2024. Swiss watch manufacturers delivered 1.4 million watches (+7.6%) with an export value of CHF 2.1 billion to countries around the world. The recovery led to a total annual value of CHF 25.6 billion, which represents a moderate decline of 1.7 percent compared with 2024.
Strong growth and significant declines
In addition to the increase in exports to the US (+19.1%), exports to France in December 2025 were also up by a spectacular 50.8% on the same month last year. Singapore (+13%) and the UK (+9.3%) also performed well, while exports to Hong Kong (-8%), China (-6.8%), Japan (-1.9%), the UAE (-5.2%) and Italy (-20.1%) showed negative signs. Exports to Germany also fell significantly by 20.8 percent.
The increase in value was mainly driven by bimetallic watches, whose exports rose by 41.2 percent, while all other material categories declined. Export volume was driven by steel watches, which achieved growth of nine percent.
The US will remain the strongest market for the Swiss watch industry in 2025
Despite the tariff capers, the US remained the strongest market for the Swiss watch industry in 2025. A total of CHF 4.35 billion worth of watches were exported to the United States. This represents a slight decrease of only 0.5 percent compared to 2024.
Japan ranks second with an export value of CHF 1.85 billion (-5.8%), followed by China with CHF 1.8 billion (-12.1%). Germany came in ninth place with CHF 1.2 billion (-6.8%).
