And the Under $800 has not been implemented yet either.

^^^ I was under the impression that the initial tariffs only applied to China (removing de minimis) and the UK/EU were in the crosshairs but not implemented yet.

JAFO wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 3:21 pm

tikkathree wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 2:00 pm I feel that the $800/£650 threshold is a relatively mature and helpful figure; why do I imagine that the equivalent UK threshold is about £11.63 and probably hasn't been increased since 1968?

Prove me wrong.

It's VAT/sales Tax, not duty in the UK. I think the VAT free limit used to be £15. Since we left the EU it's now 20%VAT even on private purchases from eg ROI. It makes buying anything from non UK sellers difficult. eBay, Alix, Amazon handle the VAT automatically, and even Jomashop offer to collect the 20% for you. If you do it yourself there's an extra £8 per consignment as a handling charge to Royal Mail for collecting the VAT.

I remember buying this Megir for about £12 some years ago. My first Chinese purchase. Unsure how it would all work. Needs a battery now.

IMG_20250207_142304768_HDR~2.jpg

From the uk gov website...

VAT
VAT is charged on all goods (except for gifts worth £39 or less) sent from:

outside the UK to Great Britain
outside the UK and the EU to Northern Ireland
VAT is not charged on goods that are gifts worth £39 or less.


I recently bought another JDM (Japan only model) watch from an ebay seller, and Fedex collected the expected 20% VAT and added their standard £12.75 fee as usual (I think UPS charge a similar fee). It's not really an issue, and I fail to see why everyone makes a fuss about Brexit. Most of the world isn't in Europe. I don't know whether the UK received any VAT on Euro sales pre brexit by some means, but sales tax is a fact of life like most taxes. Factor it in to the purchase price and then make a decision....

nycWATCHnerd wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 10:36 pm
I wonder how it will be implemented. Will it show under the "Customs Duty" section at checkout?
So far it has not been implemented. Screen shot from Nov 15 2024 and today (with Customs Duty circled in Red).

Is it just me or are these numbers high? Like $90+ on a ~$900 watch? Is there some reason the CW's are subjected to higher fees? Maybe their national origin? Because I've bought a couple Farers (also a UK brand made in Switzerland) and several watches from Germany, most of them more expensive and most of them using similar movements (SW-2xx series, 6498 etc.) and the most I ever paid was about $60.

Actually, sales tax isn't a fact of life for everywhere. I lived in Montana for three years & there never has been a sales tax on anything in that state. The same goes for Oregon. Makes a bit of a difference when you are purchasing a bigger ticket item. A more expensive watch like a $4,200 Bel Canto might fall into that category. Sales tax is a difficult concept to understand when it isn't collected in a consistent manner. For example, logic would indicate that sales tax would be collected at the point of the sale, not remotely to where the customer lives. Even county to county within a given state will vary according to local taxing entities. I will give you an example. I recently bought a Rizzini shotgun from a company in Florida. They collected the sales tax at the point of sale in Florida even though the firearm was being shipped to where I live in Kansas. That made a $300 difference in sales tax in my favor. So, yes, I would say that it matters & no, it isn't a fact of life everywhere. The elimination of the $800 tariff threshold would matter to U.S. buyers, which is just another expense added on to the sales tax being collected. I have bought & owned 15 Christopher Ward watches over the years & have paid the import tariff duty exactly once. More watches used to fall under the import threshold & I have been fortunate enough to buy several during sales. First the company has to make a watch that I want enough to buy. I will be honest in saying the added tax collections will be a factor in my choice of whether to buy going forward. So, yes, I am factoring it into my buying decision.

Delmar

SkullLeader wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 6:22 pm

nycWATCHnerd wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 10:36 pm
I wonder how it will be implemented. Will it show under the "Customs Duty" section at checkout?
So far it has not been implemented. Screen shot from Nov 15 2024 and today (with Customs Duty circled in Red).

Is it just me or are these numbers high? Like $90+ on a ~$900 watch? Is there some reason the CW's are subjected to higher fees? Maybe their national origin? Because I've bought a couple Farers (also a UK brand made in Switzerland) and several watches from Germany, most of them more expensive and most of them using similar movements (SW-2xx series, 6498 etc.) and the most I ever paid was about $60.

In my experience import duty on watches has always been around 10% give or take. There is a lot of factors at play here I think. With CW making the payments there may be some currency conversion going on. There also may be fees being charged by DHL (CWs carrier).

The last watch that I imported was before the new system and I paid duty directly. On a $1090 purchase I paid $135 in duty and fees ($15 to DHL for the courtesy of collecting my duty). Duty rate was 11%.

Movements, cases, bracelets, straps etc are all computed at different rates depending too making it tricky to figure out for certain what is happening.

5oclockhero wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 5:51 pm

JAFO wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 3:21 pm

tikkathree wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 2:00 pm I feel that the $800/£650 threshold is a relatively mature and helpful figure; why do I imagine that the equivalent UK threshold is about £11.63 and probably hasn't been increased since 1968?

Prove me wrong.

It's VAT/sales Tax, not duty in the UK. I think the VAT free limit used to be £15. Since we left the EU it's now 20%VAT even on private purchases from eg ROI. It makes buying anything from non UK sellers difficult. eBay, Alix, Amazon handle the VAT automatically, and even Jomashop offer to collect the 20% for you. If you do it yourself there's an extra £8 per consignment as a handling charge to Royal Mail for collecting the VAT.

I remember buying this Megir for about £12 some years ago. My first Chinese purchase. Unsure how it would all work. Needs a battery now.

IMG_20250207_142304768_HDR~2.jpg

From the uk gov website...

VAT
VAT is charged on all goods (except for gifts worth £39 or less) sent from:

outside the UK to Great Britain
outside the UK and the EU to Northern Ireland
VAT is not charged on goods that are gifts worth £39 or less.


I recently bought another JDM (Japan only model) watch from an ebay seller, and Fedex collected the expected 20% VAT and added their standard £12.75 fee as usual (I think UPS charge a similar fee). It's not really an issue, and I fail to see why everyone makes a fuss about Brexit. Most of the world isn't in Europe. I don't know whether the UK received any VAT on Euro sales pre brexit by some means, but sales tax is a fact of life like most taxes. Factor it in to the purchase price and then make a decision....

The admin fee makes buying low priced goods pointless. It's ok on AliX and eBay as they add on the VAT and there's no further handling fee. I just bought a watch strap folder for £14 from AliX. They add on 2.80 VAT, so it's 16.80 total. The same thing bought on eBay or Amazon within the UK would most likely be at least £30.

SkullLeader wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 6:22 pm Is it just me or are these numbers high? Like $90+ on a ~$900 watch? Is there some reason the CW's are subjected to higher fees? Maybe their national origin? Because I've bought a couple Farers (also a UK brand made in Switzerland) and several watches from Germany, most of them more expensive and most of them using similar movements (SW-2xx series, 6498 etc.) and the most I ever paid was about $60.

rkovars wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 7:36 pm Movements, cases, bracelets, straps, etc are all computed at different rates depending too making it tricky to figure out for certain what is happening.

^^^ This. The US has separate duty for each component based on where it originates. It would be almost impossible to figure out the final duty cost unless you get the information from CW about each component and go through the entire US Customs manual to find out the duty on each individual part. I assume for legal purposes CW has already done this work.

Seeing how the tariffs are playing out, the secondary market in the US could heat up a bit.

None of the leading watch-exporting countries are going to escape.

Unless you are good with Timex, the wallet will take a hit if purchasing from overseas unless you fly over to get it.

WxManMike wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 2:50 pm Unless you are good with Timex, the wallet will take a hit if purchasing from overseas unless you fly over to get it.

You will still owe import duty in that case too. Timex won't escape either. Everything they are putting out is manufactured in China.

Anyone get it with import fees on an order under $800 yet? I'm thinking about making a purchase but don't want to if I'll be hit

You shouldn't as nothing has been announced for the EU/UK as of yet. You can always go through the order all the way to checkout. If Duty is owed you will see it added before finalizing the order.

Marc from Long Island Watch did a great video about the issue.