Shipping to USA Temporarily Suspended

Effective from August 29th 2025, the $800 tax free U.S. import allowance has been removed for all countries. Import duties, taxes, and fees now need to be paid on all watches we sell that are shipped to U.S. addresses, no matter the cost of the watch or country of origin.

The U.S. has also introduced new regulations which require the import duties and taxies to be pre-paid prior to shipping, instead of the recipient paying those when the package arrives in the U.S. This effectively means that both we and the courier services we use would have to calculate what is due depending on a number of complex and often rapidly changing factors such as the primary country of origin, then charge and pay those accordingly before shipping, something most national courier services are not set up to do. In addition new fines of $5,000 and $10,000 for each shipment that may be incorrectly declared may be due.

The worldwide norm for other countries is that recipients pay any duties when the goods arrive in the country so many courier/shipping services such as Japan Post and EMS are not set up to pre-pay and have instead chosen to suspend shipments to the U.S. until this can be resolved. Please note that this is not an issue specific to just Japan, and we see shipping to the U.S. suspended in 20+ other countries too, such as Australia and the UK, as well as by well-known international shippers such as DHL.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our U.S. customers. Prior to this suspension, over 80% of The Microbrand Store's shipments have gone to our U.S. customers so we do feel this situation very keenly indeed, and are anxious for it to be resolved as soon as possible.

Our shipments to other countries remain unaffected.

2025-08-30 – Important Update

A U.S. federal appeals court has upheld both U.S. federal court and U.S. Court of International Trade rulings that most of the new import tariffs issued by President Trump are illegal. The U.S. federal appeals court is however allowing the tariffs to stand until the 14th October in order to give President Trump time to make a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Learn More.

2025-10-15 - Update

The U.S. Supreme Court case has been expedited, and is set to be argued in the first week of November, which starts on November 3rd. We would therefore hope for a definitive decision some time in November.