Mere hours after the U.S.’s new tariffs came into effect, one watch company decided to take action.
Collective Horology, a watch-collectors club and independent retailer, has sued President Donald Trump and his administration over its latest round of tariffs, enshrined on July 24. The move comes after the first levies from the U.S. sent major shock waves through the watch industry last year, causing a swift downturn in Swiss timepiece exports stateside and leaving many companies dealing with rising prices across the board.
In the suit, Collective Horology alleges the U.S. government’s newest tariffs, set at 10 percent and 12.5 percent on goods heading to our shores, are “unlawful” and the president does not have the sole power to bring about such levies. The current administration filed its latest tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which states the president can enact levies against other nations in response to their unfair trade practices, The New York Times reported. In this case, that includes Switzerland, the capital of the watch world.
“For the watch industry, this doesn’t spare anyone; it hits the biggest holding companies and the smallest independent workshops alike,” Asher Rapkin, cofounder of Collective Horology, said in a statement to Robb Report. “Importing a Swiss watch today costs at least 12.5 percent more than it did before April 2025, compounding with a stronger Swiss franc. That’s made it harder for authorized dealers to stock inventory, harder for independent makers to meet demand, and harder for collectors to invest with any confidence, because no one knows what the rate will look like six months from now.”
The lawsuit claims Collective Horology would owe about $8,280 in tariffs on its upcoming watch imports, which are said to be worth around $69,000, Hodinkee reported. Previously, the California retailer coughed up more than $160,000 in tariff fees under the levies from the U.S., according to the suit.
“Since April of 2025, Collective has been absorbing the IEEPA tariffs, then the Section 122 tariffs, and now the newly imposed Section 301 tariffs,” Rapkin said. “We’re still owed more all of our IEEPA refunds (which are in the six figures), and in the meantime we’ve paid tens of thousands more under Section 122 and now 301. The cost of tariffs to a small business is extraordinary: it’s deprived us of the cash flow and operating capital we need to run day to day, and forced price increases that no one in this industry wants: not dealers, not collectors, not the watchmakers themselves. That’s why we joined this lawsuit. We don’t take suing the federal government lightly, but at some point a small business has to push back.”
Collective Horology was joined in its filing to the U.S. Court of International Trade by New York spice brand Burlap and Barrel. The duo is represented by the legal group Liberty Justice Center, a leading figure in the charge to put Trump’s first round of tariffs in front of the Supreme Court, which ruled that the levies were illegal. The case is set to proceed over the coming months.
As we mentioned, the issue of tariffs has been plaguing the watch world for quite some time. Trump first slapped a 39 percent levy on Swiss exports in August 2025; eventually, that sky-high figure was reduced to 15 percent last November. But the horological community was already feeling the effects, with watch exports from Switzerland dropping repeatedly in the months after the initial announcement. The move only piled upon the industry’s other struggles, such as rising gold prices.