Manufacturer: Ming Year: 2020 Reference No: 18.01 H41 Case No: 001'973 Material: Titanium Calibre: Automatic, ETA 2824-2, 25 jewels Bracelet/Strap: Rubber, further accompanied by extra Ming leather blue strap Clasp/Buckle: Stainless steel MING pin buckle Dimensions: 40mm Diameter Signed: Case, dial, movement and buckle signed Accessories: Accompanied by MING Guarantee, leather card holder, leather pouch, outer packaging and extra strap
Catalogue Essay
MING is an incredibly creative micro brand whose first watch was launched in 2017 and has ever since hit a chord with collectors. Making only a handful of watches in small series each model is sold out within minutes of being released.
The brand takes the name of one of its founders and core drivers: Ming Thein, a physicist by training, and a world renowned photographer. A long time watch collector, he decided that he wanted to create his own brand and offer a watch impeccably made but at a very competitive price point.
The present H41 dive watch is incredibly well conceived and bears the signature designs found on all MING watches: flared lugs, architectural dial, use of super Luminova and a general minimalistic design.
A dive watch with an incredible water resistance of 1000 meters….that’s 1KM (!) it nevertheless maintains restrained proportions of 40mm in diameter, 12.9mm thick and weighing a mere 65g thanks to its titanium case.
The dial is also impressively designed with a two level sapphire construction with HyCeram Super-LumiNova XI (a luminous ceramic composite).
The H41 is not a limited edition per se but only 125 examples were made, all were sold out and the model discontinued.
Ming Thein is the vision behind MING: he has a diverse background that bridges both the creative and corporate, with more than 10 years in strategy and finance and 20 years as a photographer, with seven as a full time professional. Ming was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1986, educated in Australia, New Zealand, and finally graduated with a masters’ degree in theoretical physics from Balliol College, Oxford at the age of 16.
Somewhere during the mechanical portions of his degree, he contracted the watch bug made worse by a Lange 1815 graduation gift from his parents. It would follow through his early career at KPMG and The Boston Consulting Group, where the generosity of online collector communities allowed him access to their events and watches. His contributions to the community were driven by knowledge (including numerous attempts at movement design) and photography: capturing a personal interpretation of a watch, Ming in a way made them his own and shared a different vision with the collector’s community