The impact of India’s Lower Tariffs on Swiss Watches

India’s first ever trade agreement with Switzerland is already yielding beneficial results for the Swiss watch industry. At a time when exports to two of the leading global markets
US and China are slowing due to trade restrictions and unfavourable economic conditions respectively, India is emerging as one of the industry's fastest growing markets. In the past year, while the United States increased import duties on Swiss watches to 39% and then lowered them to 15%, India, on the contrary, reduced them and will continue to do so until they are phased out entirely.

After 15 years of negotiations, in March 2024, India signed a TEPA (trade and economic partnership agreement) with four European countries including Switzerland to strengthen and grow bilateral trades. That agreement came into effect in September 2025, resulting in an instant, partial reduction of Indian import duties on Swiss watches from 22% to 18.86%. In January 2026, the duties were dropped further to 15.71%. By 2031, they will be completely phased out.

India has continued to be an important growth market for Swiss watches. In 2025, It was among the only 3 global markets where Swiss watch exports grew over 8%. In 2024, India was its fastest growing export market, with export value up nearly 25% year-on-year. Especially after the pandemic, India has consistently shown impressive growth, every year. As import duties finally begin to drop, how do industry’s leaders plan to leverage these reductions to grow the market and benefit consumers in India?

“Before EFTA, India’s import duties on Swiss watches were much higher than most global markets”, notes Yashovardhan Saboo, founder and chairman of Ethos Watches, India's largest luxury watch retailer. He informs that despite this, brands and retailers made a conscious decision to keep Indian retail prices at par with the rest of the world to encourage local consumption. As a result, the burden of the high import duties was largely carried by the retailers, says Saboo, “India has one of the lowest retail margins for Swiss watches in the world”. A portion of the burden was also absorbed by brands or distributors, depending on individual commercial structures, he explains.