Guests and salesmen stand on the sales space of Swiss luxurious watchmaker and jeweler Piaget, in the course of the “Watches and Wonders Geneva” luxurious watch honest, on April 1, 2025.
Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Pictures
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 stated, as a gift for her husband’s birthday.
Their finances for the watch: $50,000 to $75,000.
If profitable, shopping for overseas could save them many hundreds 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 this planet.
The couple say they’d been pondering of a ski getaway within the Swiss mountains for a while. However the opportunity of scoring a Patek watch at a hefty tax low cost “was a motivator and added bonus,” stated Jamie, a 42-year-old New Yorker. (She requested to make use of solely her first title for privateness causes.)
Curiosity among the many prosperous to journey for tariff-busting procuring sprees has spiked in latest weeks, stated Erica Jackowitz, a journey advisor to rich clientele.
Switzerland — which is dwelling to different high-end watchmakers like Rolex, Piaget and Audemars Piguet — is the highest vacation spot, she stated.
Different European nations like France and Italy, the place famend trend manufacturers like Hermès and Prada are based mostly, have additionally emerged as scorching spots, Jackowitz stated.
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 nations) earlier than delaying them.
‘Each greenback counts’
A Christian Dior luxurious retailer in Paris on July 22, 2025.
Cyril Marcilhacy/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures
Tariffs add a brand new wrinkle to a well-worn idea: touring overseas with an eye fixed to reductions.
Many individuals journey to reap the benefits of favorable trade charges, for instance. And lots of People booked journeys to Europe for Taylor Swift concert events in 2024, discovering it more cost effective to pay for airfare, resort rooms and live performance tickets overseas than to see the artist at dwelling.
“That basically set off individuals’s mindsets which you can get issues at higher costs in other places,” stated Jack Ezon, a luxurious journey advisor based mostly in New York.
He is seen the share of shopping-centric journeys amongst his clientele bounce 48% this summer season relative to 2024.
Italy, Milan, Paris and Madrid have been the highest locations, stated Ezon, founder and managing companion of Embark Past. Vogue and watches are the highest attracts, he stated.
“Each greenback counts whenever you’re getting these sorts of tariffs,” Ezon stated.
Take the instance of an imported Rolex as an illustration of potential price financial savings, in accordance with an evaluation by FlavorCloud, a cross-border logistics agency.
A Rolex Woman-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 accordance with the FlavorCloud evaluation.
The evaluation assumes the tariff price is handed to the top shopper. Many economists imagine firms will go on at the very least a number of 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 — wherein case the potential tariff financial savings might be large, Jackowitz stated.
Any final financial savings could rely on components like an merchandise’s nation of origin and duties which will have already utilized earlier than reciprocal tariffs took impact, commerce consultants stated.
‘There isn’t any manner round that’
Celal Gunes/Anadolu through Getty Pictures)
After all, the gambit may backfire.
Vacationers should declare any gadgets they purchase overseas and convey again to the U.S., according to 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 rely on factors like the place a specific good was acquired and manufactured, and what it is product of.
Extra from Private Finance:
How rich traders use ETFs to skirt capital beneficial properties taxes
Trump immigration coverage could also be shrinking labor pressure
Roth IRA vs. Roth 401(ok) 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 accordance with commerce consultants.
“A $4,000 purse, a $10,000 watch, you’ll have taxes it’s good to pay and they are going to be assessed on the border based mostly on the declaration,” stated Rathna Sharad, co-founder and chief govt officer of FlavorCloud.
“There isn’t any manner round that,” she stated.
Particular person strolling previous the Patek Philippe boutique on Rue du Rhône on Aug. 2, 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Robert Hradil | Getty Pictures Information | Getty Pictures
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 International Entry program from U.S. Customs and Border Safety.
However customs brokers do have some discretion to levy tariffs or not, commerce consultants stated. From a sensible standpoint, it’d even be laborious for brokers to determine if clothes or jewellery worn by a traveler was certainly a brand new buy abroad, they stated.
Every traveler will get a private exemption that permits them to carry again $800 value of things duty-free, in accordance 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 stated. Duties on watches and different gadgets are calculated based mostly on the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, contemplating elements just like the motion, case and strap, they stated.
The worth of shopping for abroad
Journey brokers and customs consultants 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 realm’s value-added tax.
The upshot for vacationers: That VAT refund might be hefty, usually more than 15%.
Getting a VAT refund yields a double profit, Sharad stated: People get a reduction courtesy of that refund, and in addition scale back any customs-related tax payments (as a result of the tax can be owed on a decrease declared worth).
Moreover, the bottom price for merchandise is usually cheaper abroad, Ezon stated.
An artisan works within the Montex workshop on the Chanel SA 19M campus in Aubervilliers, France, on Jan. 20, 2022.
Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures
Vacationers ought to be conscious that there are certain steps to take to say a VAT refund, consultants stated.
For instance, the retailer might want to present a refund kind on the level of sale to vacationers, who usually must have their passports helpful. Vacationers will then must course of the refund; these designated processing companies are usually accessible at airports upon departure, consultants stated.
From a monetary standpoint, potential financial savings — whether or not on the VAT or tariffs — would wish to outweigh the general price of a visit to justify it.
However journey advisors are additionally planning experiences across the procuring.
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 completely 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,” stated Jamie.
“I think about it’s going to be a whole lot of enjoyable.”
