Guests and salesmen stand on the sales space of Swiss luxurious watchmaker and jeweler Piaget, through the “Watches and Wonders Geneva” luxurious watch truthful, on April 1, 2025.
Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Photographs
Jamie and her husband are touring to Switzerland in December for a ski trip. However hitting the slopes is not the one motivator: The couple say they’re additionally making an attempt to sidestep steep U.S. tariffs on Swiss items.
They intend to purchase a luxurious watch — a Patek Philippe Nautilus — from the watchmaker in Geneva, Jamie mentioned, as a gift for her husband’s birthday.
Their price range for the watch: $50,000 to $75,000.
If profitable, shopping for overseas might save them many 1000’s of {dollars} relative to buying an imported Swiss timepiece. The Trump administration on Aug. 7 imposed a 39% tariff on Switzerland, among the many highest charges on the planet.
The couple say that they had been considering of a ski getaway within the Swiss mountains for a while. However the potential for scoring a Patek watch at a hefty tax low cost “was a motivator and added bonus,” mentioned Jamie, a 42-year-old New Yorker. (She requested to make use of solely her first identify for privateness causes.)
Curiosity among the many prosperous to journey for tariff-busting buying sprees has spiked in latest weeks, mentioned Erica Jackowitz, a journey advisor to rich clientele.
Switzerland — which is residence to different high-end watchmakers like Rolex, Piaget and Audemars Piguet — is the highest vacation spot, she mentioned.
Different European nations like France and Italy, the place famend trend manufacturers like Hermès and Prada are primarily based, have additionally emerged as scorching spots, Jackowitz mentioned.
The European Union faces a 15% U.S. tariff on most items. That levy additionally took impact in August. (Switzerland is just not a part of the EU.)
The specter of European tariffs has endured since April, when President Donald Trump initially introduced “reciprocal” tariffs on the EU and Switzerland (amongst greater than 100 different international locations) earlier than delaying them.
‘Each greenback counts’
A Christian Dior luxurious retailer in Paris on July 22, 2025.
Cyril Marcilhacy/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs
Tariffs add a brand new wrinkle to a well-worn idea: touring overseas with a watch to reductions.
Many individuals journey to reap the benefits of favorable change charges, for instance. And lots of People booked journeys to Europe for Taylor Swift concert events in 2024, discovering it cheaper to pay for airfare, resort rooms and live performance tickets overseas than to see the artist at residence.
“That basically set off folks’s mindsets you could get issues at higher costs somewhere else,” mentioned Jack Ezon, a luxurious journey advisor primarily based in New York.
He is seen the share of shopping-centric journeys amongst his clientele soar 48% this summer season relative to 2024.
Italy, Milan, Paris and Madrid have been the highest locations, mentioned Ezon, founder and managing accomplice of Embark Past. Vogue and watches are the highest attracts, he mentioned.
“Each greenback counts once you’re getting these sorts of tariffs,” Ezon mentioned.
Take the instance of an imported Rolex as an illustration of potential price financial savings, in line with an evaluation by FlavorCloud, a cross-border logistics agency.
A Rolex Girl-Datejust watch in Oystersteel and Everose gold retails for $11,300, earlier than taxes. After tariffs, the identical watch is estimated to price about $15,700 — or $4,400 extra, in line with the FlavorCloud evaluation.
The evaluation assumes the tariff price is handed to the tip client. Many economists consider corporations will go on at the least among the price.
Rolex spokesperson Virginie de Meuron declined to remark.
The worth tag for luxurious Swiss watches can typically swell to $500,000 or extra — through which case the potential tariff financial savings will be big, Jackowitz mentioned.
Any final financial savings might depend upon components like an merchandise’s nation of origin and duties which will have already utilized earlier than reciprocal tariffs took impact, commerce specialists mentioned.
‘There is no such thing as a method round that’
Celal Gunes/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs)
In fact, the gambit may backfire.
Vacationers should declare any gadgets they purchase overseas and produce again to the U.S., in line with U.S. Customs and Border Safety.
In different phrases, vacationers aren’t supposed to maintain their purchases a secret — at which level that Swiss watch or French purse could possibly be hit with tariffs. Complete duties would depend upon components like the place a specific good was acquired and manufactured, and what it is made from.
Extra from Private Finance:
How rich traders use ETFs to skirt capital features taxes
Trump immigration coverage could also be shrinking labor drive
Roth IRA vs. Roth 401(okay) contributions
Whereas there are exemptions from customs duties in sure circumstances, particularly for lower-value gadgets, high-priced luxurious items would seemingly be handled precisely the identical as if shipped: topic to all regular import prices together with responsibility, tax, tariffs and costs, in line with commerce specialists.
“A $4,000 purse, a $10,000 watch, you should have taxes it is advisable to pay and they are going to be assessed on the border primarily based on the declaration,” mentioned Rathna Sharad, co-founder and chief government officer of FlavorCloud.
“There is no such thing as a method round that,” she mentioned.
Particular person strolling previous the Patek Philippe boutique on Rue du Rhône on Aug. 2, 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Robert Hradil | Getty Photographs Information | Getty Photographs
Ezon and Jackowitz, the journey advisors, are conscious of this potential snafu, and say they inform vacationers they need to declare their purchases. Failure to take action may danger penalties like fines, forfeiture of the merchandise and dropping membership within the World Entry program from U.S. Customs and Border Safety.
However customs brokers do have some discretion to levy tariffs or not, commerce specialists mentioned. From a sensible standpoint, it’d even be exhausting for brokers to determine if clothes or jewellery worn by a traveler was certainly a brand new buy abroad, they mentioned.
Every traveler will get a private exemption that enables them to deliver again $800 value of things duty-free, in line with a U.S. Customs and Border Safety spokesperson. The exemption is $1,600 from the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Guam.
Households touring collectively can mix these exemptions, the CBP spokesperson mentioned. Duties on watches and different gadgets are calculated primarily based on the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, contemplating parts just like the motion, case and strap, they mentioned.
The worth of shopping for abroad
Journey brokers and customs specialists say there are nonetheless deserves to purchasing European luxurious items abroad, even when they’re slapped with tariffs upon reentry to the U.S.
Largely, that is due to refunds that American vacationers can get on the world’s value-added tax.
The upshot for vacationers: That VAT refund will be hefty, usually greater than 15%.
Getting a VAT refund yields a double profit, Sharad mentioned: People get a reduction courtesy of that refund, and in addition scale back any customs-related tax payments (as a result of the tax could be owed on a decrease declared worth).
Moreover, the bottom fee for merchandise is commonly cheaper abroad, Ezon mentioned.
An artisan works within the Montex workshop on the Chanel SA 19M campus in Aubervilliers, France, on Jan. 20, 2022.
Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs
Vacationers must be conscious that there are specific steps to take to assert a VAT refund, specialists mentioned.
For instance, the retailer might want to present a refund type on the level of sale to vacationers, who typically must have their passports useful. Vacationers will then must course of the refund; these designated processing providers are typically accessible at airports upon departure, specialists mentioned.
From a monetary standpoint, potential financial savings — whether or not on the VAT or tariffs — would want to outweigh the general price of a visit to justify it.
However journey advisors are additionally planning experiences across the buying.
Jackowitz, for instance, is placing collectively a shopping-focused journey to Paris for a shopper and bundling a go to to La Galerie Dior into the itinerary.
For the New York couple touring to Geneva, getting an appointment at Patek Philippe to attempt on totally different watches — together with the ski trip — was a part of the attract.
“The power to have the ability to get the watch that we wish at a major low cost to what it’d price us within the U.S., and have the expertise of the journey and the day of getting the watch — the mixture of these issues is what pushed us over the sting,” mentioned Jamie.
“I think about it will be numerous enjoyable.”