Fleming

Thomas Fleming, the founder and CEO of Fleming, is excited to introduce the Series 1 Launch Edition — Fleming’s inaugural release and the culmination of more than three years of development.

As a longtime watch obsessive, Thomas dreamt abstractly about starting his own brand for years, but it wasn’t until finding free time during the early days of the pandemic — when he realized he had ideas for new designs, but also entirely new concepts and novel ways of realizing them — that he began to more seriously consider it. After months of research and contemplation, Thomas plunged headfirst into creating Fleming.

From the outset, Thomas had multiple genres in mind that he wanted to explore but chose to start by developing his version of a time-only dress watch. Just about every watchmaker of note throughout history has released an interpretation of this sort of watch, which makes standing out — and for the right reasons — very difficult. That difficulty is compounded by the fact that, by definition, the watch has no complications. This means there is nowhere to hide in terms of design: every element must both be carefully considered and congruous with all of the others for the overall design to be successful. Using the brand’s inaugural release to try to tackle such a challenge is daunting but serves both to establish the brand’s DNA and to represent the ambition that we will carry with us as we explore entirely new concepts over the coming years.

Fleming is as much about the way we go about realizing our vision as it is about the vision itself. The premise is simple: whatever we create, we do so without any goals or restrictions in mind. We expend the time, effort, and resources necessary to feel that we’ve done absolutely everything we can to achieve the best version of whatever it is we are creating. We search the world to bring together the best partners with whom to collaborate on each aspect and bring them together around us. As an entirely new brand, we have complete creative liberty when it comes to approaching designs and concepts and are unburdened by history or expectations of what we “should” be. We are also family-owned and fully committed to building a brand for the long term, and as a result, do not have to worry about competing motives of external investors, price, margin, or quantity goals, or any other short-term business pressures that otherwise could compromise both our artistic goals and our long-term vision for the company.

The Series 1 Launch Edition is just one of the three entirely distinct approaches to watchmaking that Fleming intends to explore in in the near future, with more to come in the years ahead. Thomas has been working on the Series 2 — an integrated bracelet sports watch — nearly in parallel with the design of the Series 1 Launch Edition. Since the beginning of 2023, Fleming has been collaborating with three-time Grand Slam finalist — and avid watch enthusiast — Casper Ruud on a lightweight, shock-resistant watch that will be entirely novel in design and in concept. Casper, then the world number 2, decided to join Fleming before a complete prototype of a single watch even existed because he felt so strongly about the vision of the brand and the people behind it. Casper not only entered a long-term partnership with Fleming, but also took a stake in the brand.

At the beginning of 2023, James Kong, better known by his Instagram handle @waitlisted, left an 11-year career as a corporate attorney in New York and joined Fleming as its COO and Art Director. Long an avid collector fascinated by watches, his connection to the hobby deepened considerably during the pandemic, when he bought a camera and began teaching himself watch photography. He has since become one of the world’s top watch photography talents, shooting for a number of the industry’s foremost brands and publications. He brings immense business and artistic expertise to Fleming, which he combines with his extensive experience as a collector and enthusiast, to help Fleming create the best products — and best ecosystem around them — possible. James holds a B.A. in Business Economics from UCLA and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Thomas holds a B.S. from Stanford University in Management Science and Engineering.