When Thomas Fleming was 18, his friend received a beautiful watch from his father. The father was reenacting a family tradition, as he, too, had received a watch from his father. In their family, it marked a rite of passage; the father had worn his watch for decades, at every memorable event in his life.
That watch had been present at a wedding, at every holiday, every hospital waiting room, every graduation. Time had passed, and the watch had silently witnessed decades of a man’s devotion.
Fleming was touched. Something clicked.
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“I remember thinking about all the moments that the watch had seen,” Fleming recalls. “How, day after day, through good and bad, it was there, its hundreds of tiny pieces still working in concert all these years. In today’s world, software can be out of date in a matter of weeks, and electronics might be obsolete in a year. But here was something that had such permanence that it not only failed to degrade as an object over decades but actually became something more meaningful—a vessel for memories and emotions, a record keeper, of sorts, to the life of its wearer.”
Fleming fell in love with watches and what they stood for. This passion led him to analyze what kinds of watches people wore all the time and which ones were relegated to drawers. He discovered that several factors were important: quality, versatility, classic styles and that they be mechanical.
The more he learned, the more he wanted to meet the people who make the best watches in the world. Shortly after founding Fleming Watches, Fleming jetted to Neuchâtel, Switzerland, the historic heart of watchmaking, where he would meet with watch partners he had been in contact with, as well as spend time learning from small, independent artisans who had dedicated their lives to a craft measured in moments.
“These artisans and engineers have often spent their entire careers perfecting a single aspect of watchmaking,” Fleming explains. “One might specialize in movement development, another in dial production, another in case construction and others in applying a specific finishing technique to components.”
Fleming explained how the collaborative approach is really the heart of his company.
“Some of these people have been doing this for decades, and the lineage of their craft can often span well over a century. When you bring them together around a shared vision and give them the freedom to do their best work without constraints, they can create something that none of us could achieve alone.”
Fleming’s philosophy is based on three core principles: creating each watch in the best way possible, no matter the time or resources required; total design integration from case to dial to movement; and sculptural thinking—ensuring the watch is compelling from every angle.
“Mechanical watches, especially the way I approach them, are really art; there’s no justifiable reason for them to exist other than that they make people feel something,” Fleming says.
“Creating something that elicits a strong emotional response is very difficult, and getting there requires making decisions that often couldn’t be justified to traditional [watch] investors who would want to see rapid growth, efficiency, maximized profits and so on,” he continues.
Fleming watches are all about quality. The company could simplify the case design, use simpler, cheaper materials, and still end up with a “nice” watch that is much less expensive and time-consuming to create. However, the company’s vision stems from how watches are made with precision and passion; to Fleming, that’s what gives them meaning.
“What would be best in the short term would often be directly opposed to what would allow us to create the best art,” he explains.
Precision and passion shaped the Series 1, Fleming’s debut collection.
“The first [collection] was about creating watches that combine the traditional with the contemporary, both in concept and in the ways we go about realizing the watches,” Fleming explains. “Our design, while certainly taking inspiration from the past, is very contemporary.”
The Launch Edition debuted in 2024 and sold out immediately. The Mark II, released in 2026, advances all the elements. It exists in two expressions—Pacific in tantalum and Redwood in 5N gold—each inspired by the northern California landscape where Fleming is based.
“My goals with every watch I design are to create something cohesive, sculptural in form, dynamic, versatile and comfortable,” he notes. “Comfort seems perhaps a bit out of place, but it’s something that is often overlooked and massively important. The watches with which we form the deepest emotional bonds are those that get worn the most.”
In early 2023, James Kong joined Fleming as COO and art director. A respected industry photographer, Kong brings operational expertise and a refined aesthetic sensibility to every product. Together, Fleming and Kong have built a creative partnership balancing technical ambition with visual elegance.
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The brand has attracted attention from world-class athletes. Three-time Grand Slam finalist Casper Ruud partnered with Fleming, and together they produced the Ghost, Fleming’s next release.
The company sells directly to clients because these watches are deeply personal objects. “We want to know the person who’s wearing one,” Fleming says. “We want to be the ones to share the stories behind the artisans who spent weeks finishing their dial by hand. That connection matters to us, and I think it matters to the people who buy our watches, too.”
A Fleming watch represents a significant investment. However, the direct model allows everything that might otherwise go toward distribution to go directly into the product itself.
“When people understand what actually goes into one of our watches—the level of handwork, the caliber of the people involved, the materials and techniques we’ve chosen, I think they realize the price is very fair,” Fleming says. “We’re not padding margins; we’re putting it all into the watch.”
In a world that measures time in notifications and deadlines, the brand offers something countercultural: an invitation to consider time not as a resource to be optimized, but as a gift to be cherished.
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