Unexpected Provenance
Ming, a Malaysian brand, is making waves in the watch world with a Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève win.
“We’re a new brand that comes from the wrong part of the world,” said Ming Thein while accepting the award.
“WE’RE A NEW brand that comes from the wrong part of the world,” said Ming Thein while accepting an award at the 2019 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG). The ‘wrong part of the world’ is Malaysia, where his watch brand, Ming, is based – a country far away and isolated from the traditional European centres of watch manufacturing.
But Ming has made an impact. The brand is only about two-and-a-half years old and has already attracted a small but dedicated fan base largely composed of discerning, experienced collectors.
The winning watch was Ming 17.06 Copper, a simple but striking two-hander clearly inspired by classic principles yet with a daring design that allows it to stand out. Its first production run of 300 pieces sold out within a day. It won the Horological Revelation prize, which is awarded to brands that are less than 10 years old.
For a tiny, young Malaysian brand to win one of the watch industry’s most prestigious awards requires a particular set of circumstances. It starts with Thein. Born in Malaysia, he has an intriguing resume that includes graduating from Oxford University at 16 with a physics degree, several stints in finance-related roles, an internationally regarded career as a commercial photographer, and, most recently, watch designer.
He began his horological journey two decades ago as a hobbyist and this mentality persists today; his deliberate approach to watch design is governed by an enthusiast’s eye for detail. It also proved important
“We bring a lack of history. We bring a lack of baggage. We bring a lack of constraint.”
in getting Ming off the ground. During the early days of the Internet, Thein spent a lot of time on watch forums interacting with – and arguing with – fellow enthusiasts, many of whom would go on to become industry figures. “The network is there and without that network, we wouldn’t exist,” he says of the friends he made early on.
It also needs people willing to invest – five of them, to be exact, who founded Ming with Thein – who decided to embark on this venture. They are all watch fans at heart, but blind passion was not the only thing that drove them. “It took us four years of
poking holes at the whole notion before we felt that we had answered most of the challenges and [decided] why not give it a shot,” says Chan Kin Meng, one of Ming’s co-founders. Their combined experience in the corporate world and their own businesses – Ming remains a side gig for most of them – helped ensure that their watch brand would be a sustainable venture. “The hobby and the passion have always been there, but I would not have gone into this if we were looking to do it as a hobby project,” says Chan, who joined Thein on stage during the awards ceremony. “I saw it more as an entrepreneurial challenge, driven and underpinned by this passion.”
Now, Ming has been inducted into the upper echelons of the watch industry. At the post-ceremony dinner, Thein would casually be introduced to the likes of Philippe Dufour, Anita Porchet and Max Büsser – a bit of a ‘pinch me’ moment for Thein, to rub shoulders with these ‘hero watchmakers’ as he calls them; but then again, Thein might now qualify as a hero watchmaker himself. The award sheds a renewed global light on what Ming has accomplished. “We bring a lack of history. We bring a lack of baggage. We bring a lack of constraint,” Thein says.
“I like to think that we bring that sense of joy and discovery when you start buying pieces again,” he continues, explaining that he wants his watches to be a layered, complex experience that only gets better throughout the ownership experience. This is evident on the 17.06 in, for example, the lithographic etching of the dial and its multi-part, layered construction.
The product needs to be good – better than good, Thein feels, given the competition from established and new brands.
“What we do have is the ability to work with the best people in the business for different things,” Thein says. Ming is transparent about its suppliers. Some models use off-the-shelf movements from ETA or Sellita, while the Swiss manufacture Schwarz Etienne makes the more exclusive movements and handles the assembly. “They go above and beyond what is necessary. There’s been very good chemistry from day one,” Thein says of Schwarz Etienne, noting that their professional relationship has developed into a proper friendship. He made it a point to thank them during his acceptance speech. “We’ve made a lot of friends in this industry… what’s been nice is how accepting everybody has been,” he adds.
Going forward, Thein will be devoting more of his time to Ming. The coming year will see several new releases – including a chronograph, an ultra-thin, and a diver – that will be showcasing the evolution of his design language, as well as new movements and finishing techniques. Watch collectors have so far seen only the tip of Thein’s creative iceberg – and now that the horological establishment has formally recognised his achievements, the world should be eagerly waiting for more.