Ming Watches
Founded in 2017 by commercial and watch photographer Ming Thein with a group of fellow enthusiasts, MING set out to prove that thoughtful design, careful engineering, and excellent finishing didn't require a five-figure price tag. The debut 17.01 — a 38mm titanium piece with a Swiss hand-wound movement, sapphire crystal, and 100m water resistance — launched at under USD 900 and sold out almost immediately, setting the tone for nearly every release since: small batches, instant sellouts, and a devoted online community that tracks each drop.
The 17 Series established MING's signature multi-layer composite dial construction, with the 17.06 'Monolith' (in Slate and Copper finishes) winning the GPHG Horological Revelation Prize in 2019 and becoming one of the brand's most sought-after references; its ETA 2824-2 base was reworked and assembled by Manufacture Schwarz-Etienne, adjusted to five positions with the dead-beat date click removed for a smoother crown action. The 19 Series pushed further upmarket: the 19.01 introduced a radically skeletonized case-and-dial architecture, while the 19.02 World Timer — MING's most expensive model at launch — used an exclusive movement co-developed with Schwarz-Etienne in a limited run. The 27.01, released in 2020 as a spiritual successor to the 17.01, repackaged MING's evolving design language around a heavily reworked ETA Peseux 7001 (remade almost entirely by Schwarz-Etienne, retaining only the gear train and escapement, finished in black chrome) and was a GPHG finalist in the Petite Aiguille category.
The 20 Series brought MING into chronographs and tourbillons: the 20.01 used a modified Agenhor AgenGraphe movement with skeletonized, anthracite-DLC-coated bridges and was a GPHG finalist in 2021, while the 20.11 'Mosaic' paired a Schwarz-Etienne ASE200-based caliber with an intricate dial assembly process documented in detail by Ming Thein himself. The 37 Series, MING's current core platform, has expanded rapidly: the 37.05 Moonphase combines a titanium case with a hand-wound Sellita-based movement and moon-phase complication; the 37.09 'Bluefin' (2024) and follow-up 'Uni' (2025, limited to 150 pieces) brought a 600m-rated dual-crown dive watch into the lineup as a successor to the earlier 18.01 H41 Abyss diver; the 37.11 'Odyssey' (2025) is offered as an open, non-limited annual production piece from CHF 4,950. The 37.04 Rose Gold Monopusher chronograph uses the La Joux-Perret LJP5000.M1 — a modern descendant of a movement originally designed by Techniques Horlogères Appliquées (THA), the storied collaboration between Vianney Halter, François-Paul Journe, and Denis Flageollet, previously famous for powering Cartier's Tortue Monopoussoir from the Collection Privée Cartier Paris.
Collaborations have become an increasingly important part of MING's output: the brand is a founding member of the Alternative Horological Alliance (formed 2024 alongside other independent makers), and its first joint timepiece under that banner, the MING x J.N. Shapiro 37.06 'Lightning', pairs a rose-engine guilloché titanium dial — hand-engraved by Shapiro in Los Angeles, then heat-colored piece-by-piece by Ming Thein in Kuala Lumpur for a unique purple-to-gold gradient — with a Sellita-based SW210.M1 manual-wind movement featuring skeletonized, anthracite-coated bridges. Limited series such as the 2024 29.01 (25 pieces) and special projects like the 29.06 'Peep Show', which uses polarizing filters as hands for a dial that shifts appearance with viewing angle, illustrate the brand's continued appetite for technical experimentation. In 2024 MING opened its own production facility in La Chaux-de-Fonds, debuting with the 37.02 'Minimalist' — the first watch designed, engineered, and managed entirely in-house — and introducing MING Polar White, a proprietary broad-spectrum luminous material that glows true white rather than the typical green or blue tint.