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发布了一款将表盘上的数字3和9位置互换的新手表，以此调侃美国对瑞士征收的39%关税。这款新手表被命名为 “假如……有关税？”，斯沃琪官网上称其设计灵感来自“当今世界正在发生的时事”，并戏称这款手表“希望只是限量版”。

官网页面显示：“表盘上阿拉伯数字3和9的倒置巧妙地指向39这个数字，与电池盖上的百分比符号配对，暗示美国对瑞士征收的关税，将对关税的关注体现在手表的设计中。”

这款手表仅在瑞士有售，因此不会受到39%关税的影响。39%的关税是美国总统特朗普对欧洲国家征收的最高税率之一。斯沃琪发言人表示，这款手表是一次“积极的挑衅”，一旦美国和瑞士达成协议，该品牌将停止销售这款手表。该公司还说，这款手表的市场需求“如此之高，我们正在全力生产”。斯沃琪在一份声明中说：“我们需要提醒一下似乎已经忘记这个问题的瑞士政府。”

斯沃琪之所以这样调侃是有充分理由的：根据瑞士钟表工业联合会的数据，美国是瑞士手表的最大客户，2024年瑞士手表对美出口额达54亿美元。据瑞士媒体上月报道，瑞士对美国的超高关税感到震惊，该国领导人仍在想办法改善与特朗普政府的关系。

另一家瑞士奢侈手表制造商劳力士公司也在努力改善瑞士与美国的关系。该公司邀请特朗普9月7日前往他们的包厢观看美国网球公开赛男子决赛，特朗普在那里受到了观众不同态度的问候。美国商务部长霍华德·路特尼克上周四在接受采访时说，他将“可能与瑞士达成协议”，但他没有透露协议达成的时间表。

(Translated by DeepSeek)