President Donald Trump’s April 10 announcement that he was raising tariffs on China to 145% shattered Anthony Mendoza.
Mendoza, 41, of Phoenix, a father of two and veteran Army major, had stumbled onto an invention that allows amateur antique watch aficionados to gently rinse a timepiece’s components.
He named it Chrono Clean, and it began to go viral. By last winter, Mendoza had sold out of his first 500 units.
Yet with a single social media post, the president seems to have dashed his plans for the future of his business.
“I really felt like my American dream had been ripped out of my hands,” Mendoza said. “And that our own president and government was letting it happen.”
Business breakdown
The Chrono Clean had gained traction online among a fast-growing amateur community of antique timepiece tinkerers, especially abroad.
Unable to locate an affordable manufacturer in the United States, Mendoza had turned to Chinese producers, which allowed him to sell the device for $150 each.
“I tried to get it built here — that’s what I wanted to do initially,” Mendoza said of manufacturing the product in the. United States “But I went to several companies, and every one I went to said, ‘No way, we can’t do that; it would cost $300 each just to make it for you.’ So it was totally out of the realm of possibility.”
A boost from a popular YouTube account in the timepiece community helped. After accounting for costs, Mendoza estimated that he earned $60,000 in profit.
Tariff troubles
After he sold out of his first batch of 500 units last winter, Mendoza said, he dialed up another 500 for production on Valentine’s Day.
Two weeks later, President Donald Trump’s tariff escalations began. Trump first imposed a total of 20% duties on exports from China in early March. Over the next several weeks, the level would steadily rise until it hit a high of 145% in the second week of April. At that point, Mendoza thought he’d have to abandon the Chrono Clean entirely, just as the second set of products was ready to ship.
The duties would stay at that three-figure level for about a month more, shaking global markets and keeping Mendoza awake at night. Having recovered from a devastating divorce and still unable to find steady work after having retired from a 20-year career in the Army, Mendoza had pinned his entrepreneurial hopes on the success of Chrono Clean.
Finally, on May 12, the Trump administration announced a breakthrough after trade talks between the United States and China in Geneva. The agreement brought the duty level back down to what was initially announced as: 30%.
Mendoza jumped, telling his Chinese liaison to immediately ship the units.
Even at the newly lowered tariff level, Mendoza’s shipping costs doubled from $1,100 on the first batch of Chrono Clean devices to $2,650 for the second.
Looking ahead
To this day, Mendoza must grapple with the uncertain environment Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff pronouncements have created.
As a backup plan, he said, Mendoza he has routed some orders directly to the United Kingdom to avoid the U.S. duties. But it’s an expensive hedge: He said it cuts into his bottom line.
He remains anxious about further escalations from Trump.
“If it goes back to 145%, I won’t be able to import my next shipment into the U.S.,” Mendoza said. He has a lead time of about five months and has to be able to make decisions with certainty.
“Because they are selling so well, I need to start working on my next order now,” he said.
A closer look at this moment in time
Mendoza describes himself as having “strong political feelings.”
“I don’t like the way things are right now,” he said.
He called the Trump administration’s insistence on moving vast manufacturing operations from overseas to the United States “a slap in the face” to small-business owners.
“It sounds great if you don’t understand how logistics work. For my product, the reason it sells is because it’s the cheapest you can buy,” he said, pointing to the reality that affordable manufacturing outside the United States helps him keep his prices low.
As a single parent, Mendoza is working to try to put his two daughters through college. Between those expenses and funding Chrono Clean, Mendoza said, his financial cushion is thin.
It’s all the more wrenching given what he has gone through, he said.
“It’s like, ‘You’ve been deployed, you started as a private, retired a major, got through a horrible divorce, you’re a great father and now you’ve started your own business and invented a product people want — they’re begging for it,’” he said of Chrono Clean.
“Then here comes your own government to shatter that dream so big businesses and Elon Musk can get richer," Mendoza said.
"To me, that's not the American dream. It’s small business, middle America, everyone should have a good chance at this. [The tariffs] will potentially put me out of business. It’s hard to wrap your head around it.”
