Hodinkee
The Business of Watches Podcast: Collective Horology CEO Asher Rapkin And Liberty Justice Center Chairman And CEO Sara Albrecht On Suing Trump Over Tariffs
This week on The Business of Watches, Collective Horology co-founder and Chief Executive Asher Rapkin joins us. He brought his lawyer. While Collective is a Ventura, California-based retailer of independent watch brands, including Armin Strom, Czapek, Fears, Ming and J.N. Shapiro, Sara Albrecht is the chairman and CEO of The Liberty Justice Center. That's the non-profit litigation firm that led the legal fight successfully challenging President Trump's initial round of tariffs all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. They won in a surprise decision that ruled the President didn't have the authority to impose levies that increased the cost of importing goods into the U.S., including Swiss-made watches. The government is now in the process of refunding the approximately $166 billion businesses paid out. Asher Rapkin, co-founder and CEO of Collective Horology in Ventura, California. Of course, the Trump administration found a workaround and immediately slapped on new tariffs and, on July 24, initiated levies of 10% and 12.5% on imported goods, including Swiss-made watches. That's the day that Collective Horology and another importer (dealing in exotic spices), filed a lawsuit against the President and various bodies and individuals in the administration including U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Rapkin explains why his business decided to challenge the tariff laws and take on the President and his administration, while Albrecht lays out the legal...
