Trump Watches: Made In China?
Trump’s “Vastly Overpriced” $100,000 “Swiss Watch” Is Probably Made in China, Experts Say.
The former president's new timepieces are the laughingstock of watch aficionados, who cast doubt on their true origins — "as ersatz as the man himself."
He’s hawked gold sneakers, commemorative coins and even a cryptocurrency venture in recent months, so Donald Trump‘s latest retail effort — to sell a pricey gold watch emblazoned with his name — should surprise no one. But timepiece experts aren’t impressed.
On Thursday, Trump debuted a pair of watches available for sale: a dive model dubbed the “Fighter” that is limited to 1,000 pieces and retails for $499 or $799 depending on style, and a seemingly high-end tourbillion design that is depicted as being crafted of 18-karat gold and embellished with diamonds on the bezel. Limited to 147 pieces, that model is listed for an astounding $100,000. All pieces display Trump’s name prominently on the dial, while the more expensive model features a sapphire caseback with his signature.
Word quickly spread among the status-watch community, which was overwhelmingly unimpressed. “This is cobbled together, patently unoriginal and vastly overpriced,” says Ariel Adams, founder and editor of A Blog to Watch, one of the industry’s most popular sites for timepiece information and education. “It’s very clear he’s working with a white labeler, which is nothing new. Anyone can go to a white labeler and say, ‘I want a watch with this case, this bracelet and these other details,’ and a white labeler will Frankenstein it together, put your name on it and sell it to you. But the price you sell it for is up to you. That the markup came from someone on Trump’s team is obvious here. Even the $500 piece from another brand would go for maybe $200.”
A marketing director of a well-known Swiss brand, who asked not to be named to keep his opinion separate from the company that employs him, agreed. “I belong to a collector group that maintains an ongoing group chat, and the initial reaction was that it had to be fake. After that, everyone was laughing,” he said of the more expensive piece. “When you look at all of them, they scream Chinese-made watch. None of them is worth the asking price.”
Indeed, even though the website touts “Swiss-made” when describing the watches, it’s not uncommon among manufacturers of lower-priced designs to manipulate that designation by purchasing some Swiss-made parts and assembling the watch in another country. By Thursday afternoon, several experts across social media pointed out that the more expensive watch’s tourbillon, a mechanism designed to improve accuracy and typically found in pricier timepieces, seemed to be sourced from both Switzerland and China. “Those blue screws on the tourbillon cage are a dead giveaway that it was partly made in China. You won’t find blue screws on a tourbillon made in Switzerland,” noted the marketing director. “And you can pick up a Chinese tourbillon for $100.”
“Fifteen years ago, if you wanted a Swiss-made tourbillon, it would be $50,000,” Adams confirmed. “But the Chinese came along with a lower-priced tourbillon, so today you can get a tourbillon watch for around $6,000. But it shouldn’t be confused with a tourbillon design fully made in Switzerland.”
Several other details also reveal a lack of quality. “The gem-setting looks very rough, while the indices on the dial also look set within the markers, not outset, which also looks very amateurish,” the marketing director noted. “And if you play the video, you can see dust on all the screws. It’s really terrible.”
“[The tourbillon watch] is as ersatz as the man himself,” added Adam Craniotes, founder and president of Red Bar Group, an international network of watch collectors that extends to 85 cities around the globe. “They can employ all the superlatives they want on their site, but [collectors have] already figured out that it’s a half-Swiss, half-Chinese tourbillon you can buy off the rack. Any value from this watch would only come from melting it down and selling the gold and diamonds.”
In addition to wording that might inspire an eye roll among serious watch collectors — “You’ll be wearing the absolute statement of success,” the tourbillon description notes — both models are also lacking information typically found on legitimate watch sites. The tourbillon model, for example, does not list the watch’s case size, a basic detail every wearer wants to know to ensure the case is suitably proportioned to his or her wrist. The total carat weight of the 122 diamonds on the bezel also isn’t listed. Adams says both omissions are likely intentional, an idea supported by a website note identical to one used when Trump was selling his gold sneakers: “The images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product.”
By withholding specifics, they’re able to make preproduction changes while staying true to the description on their site,” Adams explained. “And being generous, those diamonds could cost anywhere from $10 to $30 each.”
Regardless of whether they’re interested in the lower-priced dive model or the tourbillon selling for six figures, interested consumers would be smart to peruse the site’s fine print. Also, like the gold sneakers Trump was selling back in February, the watches are being sold only as preorders, which absolves Trump and his merchandising team of any responsibility for paying upfront for the pieces — but it also means purchasers will wait to receive them, with delivery dates estimated to be “October/November/December” in the site’s FAQ section, with the added note that “Shipping and delivery dates are estimates only and cannot be guaranteed.”
It’s basically a Kickstarter campaign, and not a very imaginative one,” Craniotes said. “They’ve taken design cues from already established watches and slapped his name on them. The red dial [on the diver style] I’m sure is a callout to MAGA red, but overall there’s just a sense of generic-ness and laziness about the whole venture.”
Craniotes’ mention that any value might only be derived from selling the gold and diamonds also can be justified by a disclaimer at the bottom of the site: “Trump Watches are intended as collectible items for individual enjoyment only, not for investment purposes.”
Adds Adams: “This is a fundraising scheme that we’ll be joking about in the future.”
An email sent via the website, requesting specific information about the watches, such as who was manufacturing them and where, was not answered.
Credit: Laurie Brookins/ Hollywood Reporter.
The former president's new timepieces are the laughingstock of watch aficionados, who cast doubt on their true origins — "as ersatz as the man himself."
He’s hawked gold sneakers, commemorative coins and even a cryptocurrency venture in recent months, so Donald Trump‘s latest retail effort — to sell a pricey gold watch emblazoned with his name — should surprise no one. But timepiece experts aren’t impressed.
On Thursday, Trump debuted a pair of watches available for sale: a dive model dubbed the “Fighter” that is limited to 1,000 pieces and retails for $499 or $799 depending on style, and a seemingly high-end tourbillion design that is depicted as being crafted of 18-karat gold and embellished with diamonds on the bezel. Limited to 147 pieces, that model is listed for an astounding $100,000. All pieces display Trump’s name prominently on the dial, while the more expensive model features a sapphire caseback with his signature.
Word quickly spread among the status-watch community, which was overwhelmingly unimpressed. “This is cobbled together, patently unoriginal and vastly overpriced,” says Ariel Adams, founder and editor of A Blog to Watch, one of the industry’s most popular sites for timepiece information and education. “It’s very clear he’s working with a white labeler, which is nothing new. Anyone can go to a white labeler and say, ‘I want a watch with this case, this bracelet and these other details,’ and a white labeler will Frankenstein it together, put your name on it and sell it to you. But the price you sell it for is up to you. That the markup came from someone on Trump’s team is obvious here. Even the $500 piece from another brand would go for maybe $200.”
A marketing director of a well-known Swiss brand, who asked not to be named to keep his opinion separate from the company that employs him, agreed. “I belong to a collector group that maintains an ongoing group chat, and the initial reaction was that it had to be fake. After that, everyone was laughing,” he said of the more expensive piece. “When you look at all of them, they scream Chinese-made watch. None of them is worth the asking price.”
Indeed, even though the website touts “Swiss-made” when describing the watches, it’s not uncommon among manufacturers of lower-priced designs to manipulate that designation by purchasing some Swiss-made parts and assembling the watch in another country. By Thursday afternoon, several experts across social media pointed out that the more expensive watch’s tourbillon, a mechanism designed to improve accuracy and typically found in pricier timepieces, seemed to be sourced from both Switzerland and China. “Those blue screws on the tourbillon cage are a dead giveaway that it was partly made in China. You won’t find blue screws on a tourbillon made in Switzerland,” noted the marketing director. “And you can pick up a Chinese tourbillon for $100.”
“Fifteen years ago, if you wanted a Swiss-made tourbillon, it would be $50,000,” Adams confirmed. “But the Chinese came along with a lower-priced tourbillon, so today you can get a tourbillon watch for around $6,000. But it shouldn’t be confused with a tourbillon design fully made in Switzerland.”
Several other details also reveal a lack of quality. “The gem-setting looks very rough, while the indices on the dial also look set within the markers, not outset, which also looks very amateurish,” the marketing director noted. “And if you play the video, you can see dust on all the screws. It’s really terrible.”
“[The tourbillon watch] is as ersatz as the man himself,” added Adam Craniotes, founder and president of Red Bar Group, an international network of watch collectors that extends to 85 cities around the globe. “They can employ all the superlatives they want on their site, but [collectors have] already figured out that it’s a half-Swiss, half-Chinese tourbillon you can buy off the rack. Any value from this watch would only come from melting it down and selling the gold and diamonds.”
In addition to wording that might inspire an eye roll among serious watch collectors — “You’ll be wearing the absolute statement of success,” the tourbillon description notes — both models are also lacking information typically found on legitimate watch sites. The tourbillon model, for example, does not list the watch’s case size, a basic detail every wearer wants to know to ensure the case is suitably proportioned to his or her wrist. The total carat weight of the 122 diamonds on the bezel also isn’t listed. Adams says both omissions are likely intentional, an idea supported by a website note identical to one used when Trump was selling his gold sneakers: “The images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product.”
By withholding specifics, they’re able to make preproduction changes while staying true to the description on their site,” Adams explained. “And being generous, those diamonds could cost anywhere from $10 to $30 each.”
Regardless of whether they’re interested in the lower-priced dive model or the tourbillon selling for six figures, interested consumers would be smart to peruse the site’s fine print. Also, like the gold sneakers Trump was selling back in February, the watches are being sold only as preorders, which absolves Trump and his merchandising team of any responsibility for paying upfront for the pieces — but it also means purchasers will wait to receive them, with delivery dates estimated to be “October/November/December” in the site’s FAQ section, with the added note that “Shipping and delivery dates are estimates only and cannot be guaranteed.”
It’s basically a Kickstarter campaign, and not a very imaginative one,” Craniotes said. “They’ve taken design cues from already established watches and slapped his name on them. The red dial [on the diver style] I’m sure is a callout to MAGA red, but overall there’s just a sense of generic-ness and laziness about the whole venture.”
Craniotes’ mention that any value might only be derived from selling the gold and diamonds also can be justified by a disclaimer at the bottom of the site: “Trump Watches are intended as collectible items for individual enjoyment only, not for investment purposes.”
Adds Adams: “This is a fundraising scheme that we’ll be joking about in the future.”
An email sent via the website, requesting specific information about the watches, such as who was manufacturing them and where, was not answered.
Credit: Laurie Brookins/ Hollywood Reporter.
