Christopher Ward has a founding mission to charge customers no more than three times the cost of producing any of its watches and to maintain a thoroughly un-Swiss level of transparency over its pricing policy.
The British watchmaker, which owns its own manufacturing facility in Bien, Switzerland, and sells direct to consumers through a global ecommerce site, has managed to set a new value bar in the industry with collections including the sporty Twelve, the Trident dive watch line and the award-winning Bel Canto.
That DTC model, which saw the company courier each individual watch to clients in the United States, came under severe strain with the recent imposition of an additional 39% on Swiss watches landing in the country.
True to its policy price transparency, the brand added the direct cost of the tariff during the checkout process for any watch bought in the USA.
Logging in from the USA in the week following the 39% tariff introduction, dollar prices were presented before sales taxes (which vary state-by-state but average 7.5%) and other taxes and duties, including import tariffs, which are added during the checkout process.
Prior to the tariff hike, christopherward.com would sell a C1 Bel Canto Classic for $4,225, the same as its price at launch, to an imaginary customer in Albany, NY.
However, after adding 8% sales tax of $374.97 for a New York State resident and customs duty of $674.03, the final price became $5,274.
That was when the 10% tariff applied.
With the 39% tariff in force after August 7, the watch was still advertised for $4,225, but that imaginary customer in Albany was suddently being charged $6,462.28 thanks to the addition of $1,899 in duties.
Flip back to to the UK ecommerce site, and the same Bel Canto was still being offered for £3,495, all-in. At today’s exchange rate that converts to around $4,700, a saving of $1,762.
This state of affairs could not hold, despite Christopher Ward’s managing director Mike France telling WatchPro that US sales had recovered after an initial dip when the new tariff caused confusion and caution.
This week it has announced that it will stop couriering watches directly to customers, which passed on the full cost of the tariff.
Instead, the company has changed its business model so that its existing US office, which was established ostensibly as a drop shipment centre and marketing operation, will now become the brand’s US distributor.
This allows the company to sell to its distributor at a wholesale price, on which the tariff is paid, lowering the price for consumers.
It may take a day or two longer for customers to receive their watches, but the savings are considerable.
“As our largest market, we’ve been looking for some time at how we could restructure operationally and financially to reflect this. The recent tariff news has highlighted just how important it was to complete this change quickly, so that our US customers could feel the benefit without too much delay,” a statement from Christopher Ward begins.
“The biggest change here is that our long-standing US entity, CW Inc, becomes our US distributor — instead of a drop shipment centre — so the price of goods into the US attracts a lower tariff, which ultimately means lowered prices for our customers,” it describes.
Changing the role of the US entity has had an instant impact on Christopher Ward prices in the country.
Back to that imaginary Bel Canto purchase by a punter in Albany.
The watch is still advertised for the original $4,225, before tax. But after specifying the Albany address, it added only the NY state sales tax of 8%, taking the final price to $5,227, which is actually $47 cheaper than the price with the short-lived (and much-missed) 10% tariff rate.
Prices have also been lowered a little because wholesaling watches in bulk through its importer is cheaper than couriering each piece to individual customers.
The Bel Canto price is 24% lower but the average is a 29% drop across the entire range, the company reports.
The stakes are high for Christopher Ward, which has relentlessly built the United States into its largest market.
Its latest published accounts showed the company generating sales of £45.3 million in the year ended March 2025, a rise of 50% over the prior year.
The company says it shipped around 50,000 watches in the year.
Sales to the United States rose by 66%, extending its lead as the brand’s most important territory, which now accounts for 45% of global sales.
Challenges for direct to consumer watch brands
Other British watch brands that sell online in the United States have taken a similar approach to Christopher Ward.
Bristol-based Fears absorbed the cost of the 10% tariff increase in April, but the rise to 39% changed the arithmetic for the company’s managing director, Nicholas Bowman-Scargill, who took the decision to appoint a distributor in the USA that imports all Fears watches and then ships them on to the final consumer.
“This adds a couple of days to the process but reduces the costs to us and ensures the final owner of a Fears in the US doesn’t have to pay anything more than the price they see on the website,” he describes.
Fears is also looking at establishing a US subsidiary that could take control of importing and forwarding more efficiently.
Fears prices have been nudging upwards, but not enough to impact demand.
“I’m pleased to say this has resulted in us seeing no drop off in sales from the US, which is a significant market for Fears,” Mr Bowman-Scargill tells WatchPro.
Farer, another British-based indie that describes America as its most important market, has already established a subsidiary to act as its own importer to the country.
This helped it to keep prices steady when the April tariff of 10% was introduced, which contributed to sales over the past five months rising markedly in the US, according to Farer managing director Paul Sweetenham.
However, he says the 39% tariff on his Swiss-made watches is “new territory”, particularly as it will hit goods entering the country, regardless of price.
There is a window this month when watches with a total import value of under $1,500 would not be hit with the new tariff, but that changes from September if a trade deal cannot be agreed.
“Without doubt if this tariff, certainly if this level stays in place, then US demand will be reduced, by how much I don’t know,” Mr Sweetenham tells WatchPro.
“Farer operates one off the lowest margin multiples in the business so we hope with the tariff added, it does not become too much of an impediment to purchase,” he adds.
Duckworth Prestex, another UK-based indie, admits even the 10% tariff hit US sales.
“We have noticed a significant drop in orders in June and July from the USA,” the company’s founder Neil Duckworth reveals. “For our customers I think [the tariffs] mean uncertainty and confusion. They don’t know what is happening exactly and how the tariffs will affect them.
Duckworth Prestex advertises its watches in the United States with tariff costs included. These vary depending on whether they are Swiss-Made models or those assembled in Hong Kong using Japanese movements.
Like the rest of the industry, Mr Duckworth is hoping that a trade deal can be reached that reduces the headline tariff rate for Swiss watches closer to the EU’s 15%. Failing that, the hope is simply that customers get tired thinking about tariffs and just consider each watch and its price on their merit.