US & EU Watch Tariffs in 2026

As of 12:01 AM ET on July 24, 2026, the US operates under its third distinct tariff regime in six months. The IEEPA reciprocal tariffs that hit Swiss watches at 39% were struck down by the Supreme Court in February. The Section 122 surcharge that replaced them expired at midnight when its 150-day statutory ceiling ran out. In their place, a new set of Section 301 tariffs — imposed by USTR under the Trade Act of 1974 and framed as a response to trading partners' failure to prohibit or enforce bans on goods produced with forced labor — took effect the same minute Section 122 lapsed.

The new tariffs cover 60 economies, roughly 99% of US imports. Watches sit squarely inside them. Unlike Section 122, Section 301 carries no expiration date. But because it is an agency action rather than a presidential proclamation, it is subject to judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act — and legal analysts expect challenges under the same major questions doctrine the Supreme Court used to kill the IEEPA regime.

The measures are tiered. For the EU, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland, the July 23, 2026 CBP guidance describes a threshold approach: where the applicable column 1 duty sits below the threshold for that partner, the Section 301 amount brings the combined column 1 plus Section 301 duty up to the threshold; where column 1 already meets or exceeds it, this measure adds nothing further. It does not reduce the underlying duty, and it is not a cap on everything you may owe — other duties, exclusions and exceptions still apply. The UK, Canada, Mexico, China, Hong Kong, Australia and others are subject to a flat additional amount that stacks on the applicable duty instead.

Read the operative text before relying on any figure: CBP guidance of July 23, 2026 (effective July 24).

Section 232 goods (steel, aluminum, copper) are treated separately. The in-transit grace period closed July 28. IEEPA refund claims filed through the CBP CAPE portal continue in parallel.

We deliberately don't publish a "what you'll pay" range per country. Because most wristwatch lines carry compound duties and the applicable subheading varies by movement and materials, a single percentage would be a guess dressed up as a figure.

Until 2025, shipments valued under $800 entered the US duty-free under the "de minimis" exemption. This is why a lot of US collectors bought from European or Asian microbrands without thinking about import costs — most microbrand watches under $800 just slipped through.

That's no longer the case. The de minimis exemption was eliminated for shipments from China and Hong Kong on May 2, 2025, and for all other countries on August 29, 2025. The Supreme Court's February 2026 ruling on broader tariffs did not restore it, and a Federal Register notice on April 9, 2026 explicitly reaffirmed the continued suspension of duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries.

What this means for buyers: value alone no longer exempts a shipment. A $400 watch and a $4,000 watch are each assessed on their own classification, declared origin and the measures in force on the day of entry — which may or may not be the same for the two watches — and any duty owed is settled before the package is released. How much that comes to depends on the specific watch, so ask the seller whether duty is prepaid or collected on delivery.

Some sellers collect duty at checkout for supported destinations, some include it in the price, and some leave it for customs or the carrier to collect on delivery. Check before ordering — "free shipping" says nothing about duty.

The UK has announced that it will remove its £135 low-value customs-duty relief and replace it with new arrangements for overseas sellers and marketplaces. As of this October 1 review, the official consultation response confirms the policy direction, but the new arrangements still require secondary legislation. Do not treat the EU's €3 fee as a UK rule; the current £135 relief remains the operative baseline until the UK change takes effect.

Canada has not mirrored either reform. Its current CBSA low-value thresholds remain: mail from any country is duty- and tax-free at C$20 or less; courier shipments from countries other than the US and Mexico use the same C$20 threshold. For qualifying courier shipments from the US or Mexico, up to C$40 is duty- and tax-free, and C$40–C$150 is duty-free but still taxable.

The US isn't the only jurisdiction closing a low-value loophole. On July 1, 2026, the European Union abolished the €150 low-value consignment relief that had let most microbrand parcels enter the EU duty-free. Under Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 — with implementing rules in Commission Delegated Regulation 2026/1022 and Implementing Regulation 2026/1200 — every commercial B2C shipment entering the EU is now subject to customs duty, regardless of value.

To keep the volume of small parcels manageable while the broader EU Customs Reform is finalized, the Commission introduced a temporary €3 flat customs duty per item on consignments valued at €150 or less. It applies from July 1, 2026 through July 1, 2028 (or until the full EU Customs Reform enters into force, whichever comes first). Shipments above €150 continue to be assessed at the standard ad valorem rates in the EU's Combined Nomenclature — for wristwatches, that's typically 4.5% under CN heading 9102.

What this means for European buyers: the flat fee is denominated in euros and applies to qualifying consignments valued at €150 or less under the simplified arrangements the Commission set out — a €100 watch strap or a €120 watch bought direct from a non-EU seller is the kind of parcel it is aimed at. A watch priced at €500 is well outside it and is treated as an ordinary commercial import at the applicable Combined Nomenclature rate. Not every low-value parcel qualifies; the conditions in the Commission's guidance and legal text govern. And the fee is customs duty only: import VAT, courier handling fees and the seller's own charges are separate and still apply.

For US and UK microbrands selling into the EU: the practical friction just increased. Most brands will either register with a customs intermediary, use a marketplace that handles the declaration (the €3 duty is designed to be collected via IOSS-style flows), or price the fee into their EU-facing SKUs. Expect a wave of "EU shipping fee" line items at checkout over the next few months.