The first MING to be designed, engineered and managed internally at our new Swiss operations in La Chaux de Fonds.

We started Horologer MING in 2017, with the aim to revive excitement in watches through considered design, and the pursuit of innovative materials and engineering. The 37.02 Minimalist marks a significant milestone in this journey.

The 37.02 Minimalist is the first watch to be designed, engineered and production managed internally at our new Swiss facility in La Chaux de Fonds. The work to increasingly internalize the engineering and production began nearly two years ago and is motivated by our desire to continually innovate and deliver better value whilst allowing us more control over the supply chain and achieving better lead times.

More importantly, expanding our footprint enables more innovation and the luminous signature of the 37.02 Minimalist is a great example of this. For years, MT has wanted to develop white emission luminous material and despite many attempts with external suppliers, this remained an elusive goal. With the 37.02 Minimalist, we’re proud to announce that we have finally achieved this in-house and we now have a proprietary white emission luminous material –MING Polar White.

MING Polar White has broad spectrum emission and therefore is one of the very few (if not the only) luminous material to truly glow white instead of being tinted. The 37.02 Minimalist is the first of several watches to feature MING Polar White.

We chose the 37.02 Minimalist as the first model to develop under the new MING as it is a philosophical successor to the 17.01 and 27.01, both of which marked previous milestones for us. It represents the current distillation of what we believe an essential, and reductivist watch should be. It feels just as at home on a leather strap as it does on the moulded rubber strap, under a suit cuff or at the beach. It is self-winding, always ready to go, quick to set, and can be dressed up or down for any occasion. It carries the same identifiable design elements and visual impact of any of the watches in our lineup yet remains discreet enough to fly under the radar should the situation call for it.

The dial is luminous and stylized in the dynamic way only sapphire can do; it can invert, glow, reflect seemingly floating markers, or suck light into a black hole depending on the angle. It is legible but not uniformly boring; balanced but not symmetric. All dial markings are in fact laser cut channels in the sapphire dial that are then liquid filled with our proprietary MING Polar White. We retained the blue emission Super-LumiNova X1 on the distinctive handset for visual contrast and increased legibility.

Playing off the gloss of the dial is our continually refined and improved 37-series case in stainless steel, sized at 38x11mm. It has a narrow bezel and mixed polished-brushed case finishes to make it visually larger and thinner than the dimensions suggest, yet remains comfortable to wear for a wide range of wrist sizes. An oversized crown and double gaskets make for easy winding and setting, as well as 100m of water resistance. It is completed by our new FKM rubber strap which is moulded with a curve that naturally follows the wrist for maximum comfort.

It is worth noting that due to a regulation technicality, watches produced by Horologer Ming SA in Switzerland are not eligible for a ‘Swiss Made’ mark. A qualifying requirement is that design and engineering be completed in Switzerland, but Ming Thein (MT) now leads this directly in Kuala Lumpur for greater agility and innovation. Nevertheless, component sourcing remains unchanged, and our watches are still assembled in Switzerland.

The final piece of good news: the MING 37.02 Minimalist launches with watches in stock and ready to ship.