Swatch trolls Trump’s 39% tariffs, selling a watch that flips the placement of 3 and 9

Swatch is selling a watch that inverses the numbers 3 and 9, as a play on the 39% import tariffs that President Donald Trump slapped on Switzerland last month. (Pierre Albouy/Reuters via CNN Newsource)

New York — Swatch, the Swiss watchmaker, is trolling the 39 per cent tariffs that the United States placed on its home country by selling a watch that flips the location of the 3 and 9 numerals.

The tongue-in-cheek new watch — dubbed “WHAT IF … TARIFFS?” — is inspired by the “current events unfolding in today’s world,” according to the description on its website. Swatch jokes that the new watch is “hopefully just a limited edition.”

“The inversion of Arabic numerals 3 and 9 on the dial subtly references the number 39,” the page says. “Paired with the percentage symbol found on the battery cover, this inversion hints at the U.S. tariffs imposed on Switzerland and the deeper narrative woven into the watch’s design.”

The watch is available only in Switzerland and therefore won’t be subject to the 39% tariffs — among the highest imposed on a European country by U.S. President Donald Trump.

A Swatch spokesperson told CNN that the watch is a “positive provocation,” and the brand will stop selling the watch when a deal is reached between the United States and Switzerland. Demand is “so high that we are full steam ahead with production,” the company added.

“We need to wake up our government, which seems to have forgotten about this issue,” Swatch said in a statement.

Their needling is for good reason: The United States is the biggest customer of Swiss watches, with exports amounting to US$5.4 billion in 2024, according to data from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.

Switzerland was shocked by the sky-high tariffs, Swiss media reported last month, and its leaders are still figuring out how to improve relations with the Trump administration.

Rolex, another major Swiss company and maker of luxury timepieces, has also made efforts to improve Swiss-American relations. The company invited Trump to their suite to watch the US Open men’s final last Sunday, where he was greeted with mixed reactions.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview Thursday that he’ll “probably get a deal done” with Switzerland, but he didn’t reveal a timeline.