In 2019, Fred Mandelbaum, Breitling’s brand historian and a watch collector who lives in Vienna, learned the hard way about the intricacies of crossing national borders with multiple wristwatches.
“I was too late in preparing the paperwork for my personal watches for a presentation at Baselworld,” he said, referring to the now-discontinued annual trade fair. And at EuroAirport in Basel, Switzerland, customs officials found 20 vintage Breitling watches, each one 60 to 80 years old, in his carry-on shoulder bag.
“It was definitely not the cheapest way to export watches,” he said, as he was fined 12,000 Swiss francs ($13,920). “On top of that I had to pay refundable V.A.T.,” or value-added tax. (As many tourists who have bought expensive items on their European travels know, he could file a request to have the tax returned to him after his departure from Switzerland.)
Such encounters with customs have long been among watch aficionados’ favorite topics of discussion, especially now as some prepare for Watches and Wonders Geneva in April. And they got a new talking point last month when customs officials at Munich International Airport said criminal tax charges would be filed against Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie star and former governor of California, for failing to declare a luxury wristwatch on his arrival documents.
According to local news reports, the actor said he was en route from Los Angeles to his native Austria, where the one-of-a-kind Audemars Piguet he was carrying would be auctioned at a fund-raising event. But customs rules require travelers arriving from outside the European Union to declare any goods valued at more than 430 euros ($465) that are brought into the bloc.
Mr. Mandelbaum said he was now careful to limit the number of watches he carries or to obtain an ATA Carnet, often called a “passport for goods,” from a local chamber of commerce office. With the document, which costs about $200 and is valid for multiple trips during a one-year period, many countries will allow the temporary entry of goods on a duty-free and tax-free basis.
But even with an ATA Carnet, Mr. Mandelbaum was stopped in 2018 in an arrivals hall at Beijing Capital International Airport. He said “a friendly Chinese army officer” announced “‘You are carrying radioactive substances.’”
“Of course I was!,” Mr. Mandelbaum said recently. “Many of the old watches had luminous radium on the dial, others tritium. But they must have extremely sensitive sensors, because my own Geiger meter did not react to my bag.
“I thought they wouldn’t, but in the end they did let me — and the watches — into the country.”
Mr. Mandelbaum was not the only one traveling to Basel in 2019 who was caught and fined.
Michael Stockton, an American watch writer and collector who lives in Britain, recalled arriving at Basel’s Badischer train station and, when a customs official asked, displayed five vintage watches that he had bought on eBay 10 to 15 years earlier. He was bringing them to Baselworld, he said recently, to show friends and fellow collectors.
Simon Erny, a media spokesman for the Swiss customs authorities, said “objects for personal use” were not subject to customs fees.
But Mr. Stockton said that he was fined 1,500 Swiss francs for not declaring the timepieces, and that he had to wait more than four hours as customs agents scanned eBay, trying to determine their value. That effort produced an additional bill of 2,500 Swiss francs in refundable value-added tax.
Asked about the incident, Mr. Erny said that Swiss customs would not comment on specific cases.
“It was really humiliating,” Mr. Stockton said. “Since that occurrence I rarely travel with more than one watch. If I do, I just declare the watches. I don’t mess around anymore; it is just not worth it.”
The practice of paying customs when crossing borders has been around for almost 5,000 years and, Mr. Erny said, is the basis of the system that Switzerland has used since 1925.
To avoid fines, he said, anyone bringing in goods without a carnet should ensure the items are “only for your personal use and not to be left in Switzerland” — which would rule out using watches in such commercial situations as professional photography sessions or presentations at public events. Watches intended for sale or auction must be declared to customs in writing or online.
“If it really is a case of watches belonging to the person traveling and the watches are also exported again, these are so-called ‘personal effects,’” Mr. Erny wrote in an earlier email. “These can generally be temporarily imported without customs formalities.”
However, the Swiss V.A.T. Act shows the power of the word “generally”: The maximum fine for failure to declare valuable goods is 800,000 Swiss francs, and an additional fine of as much as 10,000 Swiss francs may be imposed for what is termed “breach of a procedural obligation.”
Anyone arriving without a carnet may declare watches or other goods on arrival, but if Swiss customs officials suspect that the items might stay in the country, they can demand about 10 percent of the estimated value of the goods. Like value-added tax charges, such a deposit would be refunded on request as the traveler (and the goods) departed.
As a result, Mr. Erny wrote, travelers transporting high-value objects should be sure to obtain an ATA Carnet: “This way, travelers play it safe.”
Emmanuel Jutier, a co-founder of the watch parts maker Artime, spent much of the 2010s traveling the globe as a brand and sales director for F.P. Journe and Greubel Forsey. He said he always had a carnet, so he never had problems entering or exiting the United States or Switzerland.
But “in some countries, only 10 percent of the customs staff know how to deal with a carnet — then you must be able to advise them where to put the obligatory stamp and signature,” he said. “Especially when you arrive at 4 in the morning, and somebody must open the customs office for you.”
One airport sticks in his memory: “The pickiest customs staff were always at Munich airport. Every time I traveled everything was legal, but in Munich they were always asking questions, checking value, counting the watches; asking if the watches were your personal property, asking for company names, etc. Munich stands out.”
Mr. Schwarzenegger would probably agree.
