Tyler Thompson is certified by the Swiss American Watchmakers Training Alliance, which involves 3,000 hours of training. Photos: Chris Emeott
Thompson Watch Repair sells, repairs and maintains vintage watches.
One thing Tyler Thompson has learned over the years is that watches serve many purposes. They can be a link to the past, a status symbol, a collector’s item or even a fashion statement. They also keep time. “The cheapest Timex you see at Sam’s Club keeps 30 times better time than a Rolex, a brand-new Rolex,” Thompson says. “Because the Rolex is mechanical, it beats eight times a second. The Sam’s Club watch is chords and then tuning fork, and then that vibrates at 32,768 times a second. So the time base is just way different. But people still like mechanical watches.”
That’s why Thompson Watch Repair in Lakeville had a steady stream of customers on a recent Tuesday, even, maybe especially, in the age of smart watches and cell phones. Over the course of one morning, one customer came in with a recently inherited watch from his grandpa. (“Just be careful where you take grandpa’s watch,” Thompson told him, noting that it can be easy to break a watch trying to replace the battery without specialized experience.) Another customer wanted to talk about makes and models, asking Thompson what he thought about a Grand Seiko. (“Buy used,” Thompson advised, noting that a watch loses its value as it’s worn, similar to a new car.)
The store offers watch repair and maintenance and also sells vintage watches. Thompson has a soft spot for vintage Seikos, which his grandpa introduced him to. He has customers from around the country who mail him their vintage Seikos for repairs and maintenance. His favorite watch is Seiko’s “Captain Willard,” a dive watch worn by Martin Sheen’s character in Apocalypse Now.
The Valjouz 23 VZ is a legendary manual-wind column-wheel chronograph movement produced by Valjoux from 1916–1974.
Thompson’s career started with a gift from his grandpa: a vintage Bulova Accutron nicknamed the “Devil Diver.” “This watch doesn’t tick; it hums,” Thompson says. “It runs on a little tuning fork. That was a big deal when that came out, because before then, you only had the oscillating wheel back and forth.”
Thompson wanted to know how to best take care of the watch, so he started researching it. “The more I learned about watch repair, the more I enjoyed it,” he says. He began collecting watches and learning as much as he could about how they worked.
He started repairing watches at Macy’s and then with a local jeweler, and during COVID-19, he launched a business, making weekly visits to local nursing homes to repair the residents’ watches. Thompson formalized his education at the Watch Technology Institute at North Seattle College, graduating in 2023. He pursued a Swiss American Watchmakers Training Alliance certification, which takes two years and involves 3,000 hours of training. He’s also officially authorized to repair Tag Heuer and CWC watches, which involves having both the right knowledge and right equipment. He moved Thompson Watch Repair to Lakeville in 2025 after operating the shop in Duluth, Prior Lake and Seattle.
With each repair, Thompson seeks to give new life to an old timepiece, replacing old parts while maintaining the look and character of each piece. “That’s a mark of being a good watchmaker,” he says. “You should be able to go in and out of something like a ninja without being detected.”
Thompson Watch Repair
Instagram: @thompson_watch_repair
