Hands-On: The Ming 19.02 Worldtimer

It's difficult to talk about Ming Watches (at least for me) without also thinking about Ming Thein, whom I first got to know in the early 2000s when he and I were both relative newcomers to horology, and were hip-deep in the many very passionate and sometimes quite heated exchanges going on, on what was the ThePuristS.com, and what's now PuristsPro. Most of what we talked about is now ancient history, more or less, but I still remember, vividly, the speculative plans for wildly imaginative watches that he sometimes shared with us, and I felt convinced that sooner or later he'd produce a watch, or watches, of his own.

In subsequent years, he became not only a very successful fine arts and commercial photographer, but also one of the most highly respected and widely read online photography gurus in the world. I always felt a sneaking suspicion, though, that he was far from done with watches and it was therefore with little surprise, but much pleasure, that I followed, and covered, the launch of his first collection – the Ming 17.01, which debuted in August of 2017.

The original Ming 17.01 watches, with anthracite and blue sapphire dials.

The 17.01 immediately drew a lot of attention and created a lot of buzz – here were watches that were obviously the result of considerable care, thought, and attention to detail, which moreover were instantly recognizable, and just as significantly, absolutely different from anything anyone else was doing. Unlike so many startup, small batch watch companies, there was no obvious reaching into the grab bag of well-worn vintage design cues that characterizes so many such companies; also absent was the other obvious ploy, which is to do something aspirationally minimalist and Bauhaus-influenced. Instead, there was a whole new design vocabulary – cool, deceptively spare, with a few highly idiosyncratic details executed meticulously and with tremendous focus.

Since then, the collection has continued to expand, and while the 17.03 GMT brought the first complication to the 17.xx series (and at a slightly higher price point) perhaps the most unexpected move from Ming, at least initially, was the use of a much higher grade, 100-hour movement from Schwartz-Etienne, in the Ming 19.01, which, in addition to offering its own timepieces with in-house calibers, also occasionally supplies them to other manufacturers. With a movement that was a quantum leap above those used in the 17.xx series in terms of exclusivity and degree of finish, also came a corresponding jump in price – CHF 6,900, which was a surprise to many who'd been won over by the slightly incredible value proposition of the 17.01, but which was well in line with the complexity of the case, dial, and hands, as well as the sophistication of the movement.

The Ming 19.01

The design represented the next evolution of the Ming design vocabulary.

The movement is caliber MSE1001.1, with 100 hour power reserve.

The parallel creation of two families, the 19.xx and the 17.xx, represent two different price points and obviously, very different value propositions, but behind both is a common basic design vocabulary. Central to both as well are the ideas of over-delivering on design intelligence, as well as on more concrete details in terms of quality and execution of components, including the movements. The next evolution of the 19.xx series was announced recently, and it's the Ming 19.02 World Timer. This is not a dual time zone, or GMT watch, but rather, a true worldtimer – the city names (presented as 3-letter IATA airport codes, which includes Kuala Lumpur in homage to Ming's location in Malaysia) are actually printed on the underside of the dial, with a rotating 24 hour disk.

Though this is a new complication for Ming, there is with the 19.02 the same combination of a lot of carefully thought out details adding up to a deceptively simple look, that's characteristic of the other Ming watches, in both the 17.xx and 19.xx families. The case has a double-box sapphire crystal design (box sapphire crystals both front and back) with a grade 5 titanium case middle and lugs; at 39mm x 10.9mm, it's very much in the Goldilocks zone in terms of size. As with previous models, there is a generous and very striking deployment of Super-LumiNova, which is applied not only to the hands, but also to the rehaut, which under low light conditions gives the watch Ming's signature, city-of-the-future Tron-esque glow.

The front crystal, in addition to carrying the city names, is also treated with a color gradient that is an opaque, deep blue, and which transitions to transparency at the edge of the dial. Here, the laser-etched chapter ring gives a sense of depth, against the rose-gold finish of the movement plate visible beneath it. The whole thing is beautifully orchestrated – the openworking of the hands, and the use of color, as well as the control of visual depth, somehow all manage to work together harmoniously.

When you see this disparate a group of elements integrated so well, and moreover in a genuinely original design vocabulary, it's easy to forget just how difficult it is to get this right until you look back at other efforts and see how easy it is to get wrong. The design works not just in two dimensions, but rather, across the entire physical structure of the watch case as well, with the signature lugs on the same visual continuum as other aspects of the design.

The same sensibilities inform the execution of the movement. (Note: the 19.02 shown here is a prototype; the caseback is engraved 19.01 but of course, the full production models will have the correct engraving; also the lower level of the bridge for the automatic winding system will be hand beveled in the production caliber.) The contrast between warm and cool that's one of the overarching themes topside is carried through the caliber ASE220.1, thanks to the anthracite-colored, partly openworked mainspring barrel cover, and the sintered tungsten microrotor.

Schwarz-Etienne for Ming caliber ASE220.1.

The use of rose gold for plating the movement, which is hand-finished, with hand-drawn bevels and flanks, is I think essential to the success of the design as a whole, and the openworking of the movement plates, while not an example of full skeletonization, actually offers a much better integrated visual impression than traditional openworking, giving the movement the same sense of mult-tiered three-dimensionality as the dial side. There's a 70-hour power reserve on offer as well, and a stop-seconds (there's no seconds hand, but if you are fussy about setting the time as accurately as possible, it's a feature it certainly doesn't hurt to have).

The very first Ming watch, the 17.01, was such a hit from the perspective of price-to-value ratio that it instantly created expectations for many of us, about the future direction of the company. Doing a luxury level watch line in parallel with a more accessibly priced product is certainly not impossible, but there are many more examples of failure in pursuing such a strategy, than there are successes. Whether or not Ming is succeeding is of course highly dependent on who you're asking; for me, what makes the whole thing work is the combination of continuity of design sensibility across all the product lines, combined with clear, and very importantly, defensible, differentiating traits between the 17.xx family, and its siblings in the 19.xx line.

Ming continues to offer its watches exclusively online. The 19.02 Worldtimer is CHF 9,900 until March 31, 2019, with a jump to CHF 11,900 when the calendar ticks over to April 1. Deliveries for 2019 are already fully booked, so expect early 2020 delivery if your order isn't already in. For more on the watch, as well as for full specs, pricing, and other details, head on over to ming.watch.com.

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