Swatch, the Swiss watchmaker, is trolling the 39% 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 said 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 U.S. Open men’s final on Sept. 7, 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. 瑞士手表制造商斯沃琪近日發布了一款將表盤上的數字3和9位置互換的新手表，以此調侃美國對瑞士征收的39%關稅。這款新手表被命名為 “假如……有關稅？”，斯沃琪官網上稱其設計靈感來自“當今世界正在發生的時事”，并戲稱這款手表“希望只是限量版”。 官網頁面顯示：“表盤上阿拉伯數字3和9的倒置巧妙地指向39這個數字，與電池蓋上的百分比符號配對，暗示美國對瑞士征收的關稅，將對關稅的關注體現在手表的設計中。” 這款手表僅在瑞士有售，因此不會受到39%關稅的影響。39%的關稅是美國總統特朗普對歐洲國家征收的最高稅率之一。斯沃琪發言人表示，這款手表是一次“積極的挑釁”，一旦美國和瑞士達成協議，該品牌將停止銷售這款手表。該公司還說，這款手表的市場需求“如此之高，我們正在全力生產”。斯沃琪在一份聲明中說：“我們需要提醒一下似乎已經忘記這個問題的瑞士政府。” 斯沃琪之所以這樣調侃是有充分理由的：根據瑞士鐘表工業聯合會的數據，美國是瑞士手表的最大客戶，2024年瑞士手表對美出口額達54億美元。據瑞士媒體上月報道，瑞士對美國的超高關稅感到震驚，該國領導人仍在想辦法改善與特朗普政府的關系。 另一家瑞士奢侈手表制造商勞力士公司也在努力改善瑞士與美國的關系。該公司邀請特朗普9月7日前往他們的包廂觀看美國網球公開賽男子決賽，特朗普在那里受到了觀眾不同態度的問候。美國商務部長霍華德·路特尼克上周四在接受采訪時說，他將“可能與瑞士達成協議”，但他沒有透露協議達成的時間表。 (Translated by DeepSeek) | 