Horologer MING and Massena LAB launched their first collaboration in 2021. Five years later, and now as fellow members of the Alternative Horological Alliance, we’ve teamed up for the sequel: the MING × Massena LAB 57.09 Secret Honey.

The honeycomb motif returns, now with more masochism, moving parts, and better special effects.

The original MING x Massena LAB 17.09, released in two dial variants, referenced the “honeycomb” pattern found in highly collectible vintage wristwatch dials from the mid-20th century. The 17.09 Honey paired stainless steel with a dial adorned with a hexagonal take on that mid-century design, rendered in a warm honey tone. The 17.09 Black took the same idea somewhere darker.

The new 57.09 Secret Honey combines both palettes in one watch, replacing the literal honeycomb pattern with a more elusive interpretation, then sets it all in motion. The honey hue reveals itself only as the disks rotate, which is the “Secret” part of the name, in case that was too subtle.

A dark brown, lacquered, and circular-brushed base dial sits beneath three rotating sapphire disks with anti-reflective coatings. The disks complete one rotation every 24 hours, 12 hours, and 60 minutes, respectively.

Each disk has its own color and opening pattern, with select elements coated in orange-emitting Super-LumiNova or white-emitting MING Polar White. As the apertures overlap, they create a continuously shifting interference pattern that we call dynamic guilloché. If that sounds like a lot of action for a time-only watch, that’s because it is.

The 12-hour and 60-minute disks carry the honey-colored hour and minute indications, which glow orange thanks to Super-LumiNova. Above them, the indices and the MING and Massena LAB logos are engraved into the box-style top sapphire crystal and filled with MING Polar White, creating a second luminous layer. The display never stops moving, but it only looks like it’s drenched in neon after dark.

The grade-5 titanium case uses our fifth-generation design language, recognizable by the triple-stepped lugs also found on the 57.05 Comet and 57.04 Phoenix. It measures 40mm in diameter, 10.17mm thick, and 47.8mm from lug-to-lug, with 100 meters of water resistance.

And then there are the lugs. We’ve upped the ante on a case that already pushes the envelope. For the first time at MING, each step utilizes a different color. The outermost step remains natural titanium. The middle step is coated in TiN to recall yellow gold, while the innermost step is coated in TiSiN to reference rose gold. The tri-tone lugs mirror the dial’s shifting black-and-honey palette, uniting the case and dial.

The triple-stepped lug construction requires no fewer than nine individual components. This multi-piece approach allows adjacent surfaces to receive sharply defined brushed and polished finishes that conventional case construction techniques cannot achieve.

Powering this carefully controlled chaos is the self-winding Sellita for MING 330.M2, visible through the sapphire crystal exhibition caseback. It offers approximately 50 hours of power reserve and runs at 4 Hz, or 28,800 vibrations per hour. The movement features skeletonized bridges with brushed finishing and an anthracite coating, set over a matching anthracite-coated baseplate.

The 57.09 Secret Honey is delivered with two straps: a vachetta-colored goat leather strap by Jean Rousseau Paris for MING and a black MING FKM rubber strap. Each strap is fitted with a stainless-steel flying-blade tuck buckle with micro-adjustment.