Thompson Watches told shoppers that an elderly watchmaker was retiring and selling his last handmade pieces at 80% off, with two extra watches thrown in free.
If you bought one, or you’re wondering what a Thompson watch is really worth, the store’s own pages tell a story that changes every few weeks.
Overview
A watchmaker who kept retiring
Thompson Watches sold through thompson-watches.com from mid-2025. Every version of the store described a final sale before a craftsman named George Thompson closed his workshop.
The sale never ended. It ran as an 80% off closure sale in July 2025, became his last Black Friday sale in November and then a final Christmas sale.
Even his career length moved around. One set of Facebook ads said 30 years, another said more than 40, and the store itself said 40.
Where Thompson Watches stands now
The thompson-watches.com address now shows a password-protected Shopify page that says We’re opening soon, with a newsletter prompt written in Dutch.
A second Shopify store used in the ads, thompson-watches.myshopify.com, reports that it is unavailable. The UK ad domain, thompson-watches.uk, no longer resolves, and Amazon carries no Thompson Watches storefront.
The short answer
Do not buy from Thompson Watches or any copy of its retirement sale. If you already paid, these steps matter most.
- Ask your card issuer or PayPal for a not-as-described dispute, citing the fake closure sale and handmade claims.
- Don’t ship a watch to Asia at your own cost unless the payment provider tells you to.
- Save screenshots, order emails and tracking details before more pages disappear.
- Expect resale value close to zero. These are generic fashion watches, not collectible pieces.
Who Is George Thompson?
The store’s About page introduces George Thompson in the first person. He says he has spent 40 years building watches by hand in a modest workshop.
The page shows a gray-haired man in an apron in front of a wall of watches. It gives no workshop address, training, awards or anything a buyer could check.
The ads don’t even agree on his name. Facebook ads from the Thompson Watches UK page were signed by David, while the store’s pages speak as George.
A watchmaker with four decades of work leaves traces, such as a shop listing, local press or auction records. Thompson Watches has none, and its domain dates from April 2025.
The same story appears in other closing-down stores we’ve reported. Our investigations of Henry’s Watches and Henry’s Caps describe the same retiring-craftsman story with a different name.
The Retirement Sale That Never Ended
In July 2025, the homepage advertised up to 80% off and a closure sale. By November, product pages ran a black banner for a Black Friday sale.
That banner counted down to a deadline, but the countdown was code. The script measures the time left until the next midnight in New York, so the offer restarts daily.
Product pages also carried a notice: “UPDATE: After 40 years of crafting watches, I’m retiring.” Under it, one model claimed only 11 watches were left, and another claimed 9.
The code told another story. Few left in stock was fixed text, and the inventory data listed nearly 5,000 units of each Thomas version.
The December homepage moved on to a Final Christmas Sale with 80% off plus Buy One, Get Two Free. The last pieces would never return once the workshop closed forever.
UK ads that ran on October 29 and 30, 2025, said the business was in its very last week. Two months later, the store was still running a final sale.
Prices changed with every final sale. In July 2025, the Sean multifunction watch was listed at $299.95 and reduced to $59.95.
By November, the same watch showed a regular price of $410.95 and a sale price of $99.95. In December, it was $440.95, cut to $109.95.
The crossed-out price rose by $141 between July and December, and the sale price went from $59.95 to $109.95. A clearance sale that keeps raising prices isn’t clearing anything.
To get the free watches, buyers had to add three watches to the cart. The discount then applied automatically, which turned one impulse buy into a three-watch order.
Are Thompson Watches Worth Anything?
Not much beyond what you paid, and probably less. The prices looked like a bargain only because of the crossed-out figures beside them.
Bestsellers showed regular prices from $385.95 to $660.95 cut to $104.95 to $139.95. A dual-tourbillon model was listed at $1,375.95 and sold for $269.95.
A genuine tourbillon is one of the most difficult mechanisms in watchmaking, and real ones cost thousands. A double one for under $300 tells you the description isn’t accurate.
The December store listed 192 products while calling them handmade. One craftsman can’t hand-build that catalog, let alone thousands of units of a single model.
Zoom in on the product photos and the dials carry other makers’ wordmarks, not a Thompson logo. They look like the mass-produced quartz fashion watches sold across online marketplaces.
One Trustpilot reviewer wrote that the Rio watch they received was sold on eBay for $12, after being charged $54. Another said a band broke soon after arrival.
For resale, a no-name quartz watch is worth what someone will pay on a marketplace, which is often close to nothing. Don’t expect a jeweler or dealer to buy one.
Thompson Watches Reviews: What a 4.5 Trustpilot Score Means
Product pages showed 4.8 stars from more than 1,700 reviews. Different watches carried the identical line, typed into the page template rather than counted by a review app.
Trustpilot is kinder. Thompson Watches holds a 4.5 score from 277 reviews, nine in ten of them four or five stars, mostly from buyers whose watches arrived.
That score shows the parcels usually arrived, not that the deal was real. One-star reviews describe $400 to $500 reference prices and identical watches sold elsewhere for far less.
The homepage also showed an As Seen In row with logos for Valet, Gear Patrol and The Strategist. It linked to no article, and press logos alone don’t prove coverage.
How the Thompson Watches Scam Works
Step 1: Facebook ads announce a closing
Ads from pages called Thompson Watches UK and Bluelamyuk ran in late October 2025. They thanked customers and announced that Thompson Watches was closing forever after 30 or 40 years.
Step 2: A founder story replaces facts
The About page and product banners speak as George Thompson. The personal voice makes the discount feel like a farewell gift rather than a sales tactic.
Step 3: Inflated prices make the discount look real
Every watch carries a crossed-out price four or five times the sale price. The savings figure, such as $366 off, comes from a price nobody was ever charged.
Step 4: Free watches push a bigger cart
Buy One, Get Two Free only works with three watches in the cart. The shopper ends up with more cheap stock and less reason to return any of it.
Step 5: Scarcity is written into the page
The midnight countdown resets daily, and the last-watches warnings ignore the store’s own stock data. Both push shoppers to buy before comparing prices.
The cart drawer added a third clock, warning that the store could only hold the order for 60 minutes.
Step 6: The store goes dark
After the Christmas sale, the shop stopped trading. Buyers who need help now have only their order emails, tracking numbers and payment records to work with.
Who Runs Thompson Watches, and Where Do Returns Go?
The company name points to Utah, not a workshop
The store’s footer named Blue Oak Strategies LLC at 223 W Cougar Blvd, Num 435, in Provo, Utah. The store never explains how that company relates to a watch workshop.
A limited liability company in a footer is the seller of record you would name in a dispute. It isn’t evidence of a watchmaker, a factory or a retiring founder.
The phone number can’t be called
The contact section listed +1 (555) 234-9876. Films use 555 for made-up phone numbers, and 555 isn’t an assigned US area code, so the number can’t connect.
That leaves support@thompson-watches.com as the only real contact, and the store that published it is now locked behind a password page.
Returns go to Asia at your expense
The returns page allows 14 days from delivery, only for watches that are unworn and in their original packaging. It refuses cancellations once an order is placed.
It also states that returns aren’t free and must be sent to a fulfillment center in Asia. International postage can cost more than the watch is worth.
Elsewhere, the cart promised a Lifetime Guarantee, and the homepage offered a 14-day money-back guarantee backed personally by the founder. The written policy is the narrowest of the three.
Handmade claims don’t match the supply chain
A handmade watch from a small workshop wouldn’t need an Asian fulfillment center or dials printed with other brands. Delivery in 5 to 15 business days fits drop-shipping.
The FAQ promised free shipping to the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. Facebook ads also sent UK shoppers to a separate .uk domain with the same 80% off offer.
The same FAQ describes tracking an order from the workshop to the buyer’s door, and it admits the store doesn’t take custom builds. That’s an odd gap for a watchmaker.
No manufacturer, movement supplier or country of assembly appears on any product page. Specifications list only case size, thickness, strap length and band width.
Is Thompson Watches Still Online?
Not as a working shop. The thompson-watches.com domain now loads a Shopify password page announcing We’re opening soon, followed by a Dutch-language newsletter sign-up.
The page runs on the same Shopify store account that sold the watches in 2025. The shop has been locked, not deleted, so it could reopen.
The Dutch text fits an older detail. The store menu spelled accessories as Accessoires, the Dutch, French and German spelling, even though the footer named a Utah company.
A second storefront, thompson-watches.co, sold a Sean watch for $79.95 against a $330.95 reference price in November 2025. It now shows a store-unavailable page.
If an ad shows the same retiring-craftsman pitch under a new name, treat it as the same scheme, as our Jack and Jen Jewelry closure sale report shows.
How to Check a Closing-Down Sale Before You Buy
Retirement sales like this one are easy to test in a few minutes, before any card details go in.
- Look up the store on the Wayback Machine. A final sale that appears in July, November and December isn’t final.
- Search the founder’s name with the word watchmaker. A real craftsman shows up in local news, trade listings or auction records.
- Run a product photo through Google Lens to find the same watch on cheaper marketplaces.
- Read the returns page for the return address and who pays postage before you order.
What to Do If You Bought From Thompson Watches
- Contact your card issuer and open a dispute for goods not as described. Explain that the store advertised handmade watches from a retiring craftsman and delivered generic fashion watches.
- If you paid with PayPal, open a dispute in the Resolution Center and escalate it to a claim if the seller doesn’t answer within the window.
- Save screenshots of the ad, the product page, your order confirmation and tracking emails. The store pages are gone, so your copies are the evidence.
- Don’t mail a watch to Asia at your own cost before your payment provider decides. Ask them whether a return is required for the dispute.
- Check for charges for the extra free watches or shipping upgrades you didn’t expect, and dispute any you didn’t approve.
- If you used Shop Pay, review the order in the Shop app and contact Shopify support about the store being unavailable.
- Report the ad to Meta and file a report with the FTC. UK buyers can use Action Fraud.
- Ignore follow-up emails promising refunds for a fee or a new closing-down sale. Those are a common second round of the same scam.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Thompson Watches legit?
No. Watches usually arrived, but the closing-down sale ran for months, the reference prices were inflated and the stock warnings contradicted the store’s own inventory.
Are Thompson watches worth anything?
Very little. They’re generic quartz fashion watches with other makers’ dials, so resale value is close to zero and far below the sale price.
Is Tomoson safe?
Tomoson is an unrelated influencer-marketing site that has matched brands with bloggers for product reviews. Nothing here concerns it, and if you meant Thompson Watches, the answer is no.
Is George Thompson a real watchmaker?
Nothing supports it. His story exists only on the store’s pages, his career length changes between ads, and the domain behind him dates from April 2025.
Can I return a Thompson watch for a refund?
Only under narrow terms: 14 days, unworn, original packaging and shipped to Asia at your cost. The steps above cover recovering money without that return.
Is thompson-watches.com still selling watches?
No. The same Shopify store now sits behind a password page that only collects newsletter sign-ups. If it reopens with another final sale, don’t buy.
The Bottom Line
Thompson Watches is a scam built on a retirement that never happened. The closing-down sale ran for months, the countdown was code and the handmade watches were generic imports.
If you paid, contact your card issuer or PayPal now, even if months have passed, and keep every screenshot of the order.
Next time an ad says a beloved craftsman is closing his shop forever, search the brand name with the word scam before you buy.
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