If there must be tariffs, luxury watches couldn’t be a better place to put them. Slapping hefty tariffs on Switzerland, therefore, home to elite brands such as Rolex and Patek Philippe and the source of $5.4bn of horological exports to the US last year, could be a masterstroke by President Donald Trump.

Although Switzerland has no gold mines itself, the gold shipped by its refineries to the US — worth about $61.5bn over the 12 months ending in June — weighed heavily on the country’s trade surplus with the US, leading some in the country to blame the sector for the failed trade talks.