Only 15 of Ming’s New Omakase Watch Are Available—If You’re Not Friends With Him Already
During a collector dinner in Singapore one day in 2023, independent watchmaker Ming Thein, founder of the Ming brand, was asked to design his ideal watch and to make one for each of the 10 collectors at the dinner. Thein rose to the challenge, and created a limited edition called MING21.01, nicknamed Project 21: Horological Omakase, but he asked the collectors for something in return: their complete trust. The only way he could make the watch was by “souscription”—taking hefty down payments from the 10 collectors at the dinner. He’s delivering the watches today, and along with them, the announcement that he’s making 15 more for public release.
From the movement to the case and the dial, the MING21.01 is an unusual blend of vintage and modern elements, an aesthetic that Ming is known for. “I have always sought balance in design, and Project 21 is perhaps the most finely tuned expression of that to date,” says Thein. “It is visually thin and refined, yet tactilely robust and hefty; it looks small but wears larger; it appears vintage yet has thoroughly modern design codes and forms that are only possible with current technology.”
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It started with the movement, a reworked version of an ultra-thin vintage caliber called the Frédéric Piguet 21, which Thein says is a horologically-significant movement with a distinguished history. “At just 1.75 mm, it was for the longest time one of the thinnest movements ever made and one of the longest produced, from its introduction in 1925 (exactly 100 years ago) up until Piguet was integrated into the Swatch Group.” Variations of the movement have been used by Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and others. Thein’s variation involved reworking the movements with new bridges, one of which is titanium. Signature Ming finishes include polished anglage and fine sablage (a sandblasted surface with a frosted matte appearance). The movement was skeletonized to show off the gear train, and the jewels were set in chatons.
The case is vintage-style small, at 35 mm, but Thein wanted it to wear large, so he gave it a narrow bezel, along with markers and dial elements pushed to the very outer edge. It’s made of tantalum, a material not unfamiliar to the brand. When Ming, Thomas Fleming, and J.N. Shapiro formed the Alternative Horological Alliance last year, with the purpose of pooling resources and sharing collaborations, their first joint project was the creation of a tantalum bracelet engineered to fit watches from all AHA member brands. For the MING21.01, the strap is calf leather, but the case is tantalum, produced and finished by Josh Shapiro and his J.N. Shapiro team in Los Angeles. It is given three contrasting finishes: mirror polish on the rehaut edge; a fine circular brush on the concave bezel that flows into the lug tops; and a sandblasted around the flanks. “Machining in tantalum always has its challenges, and Ming’s designs are always eloquent yet difficult,” says Shapiro. “We were extremely pleased with the result despite the difficulties. We feel a tantalum case like this has never been made before.”
Thein says he wanted to use tantalum to add some heft to the watch. “Small cases tend to be light to the point of cognitive dissonance. They also tend to feel a little hollow. So I designed a case that would be as heavy as possible: solid all the way around the movement and no separate bezel for even higher perceived rigidity.” It is water resistant to 50 meters. The multi-level dial pairs a layer of Femtoprint fused boroscilicate (Femtoprint is used to create microscopic details inside sapphire crystal or other transparent components) over a CVD-coated brass plate, and has a 5N rose gold coating. The indexes are etched into the external crystal, and the skeletonized hands have polished and angled flanks. Getting one of these 15 pieces will require a 30% down payment. It is priced in Swiss francs at CHF 32,500 (approximately $36,600), and is available at www.ming.watch or Ming authorized dealers.
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