Ming x Massena LAB 57.09 Secret Honey, with Honeycomb Dial in Constant Motion

Ming, the independent watchmaking company founded by photographer Ming Thein, and Massena LAB, William Massena’s creative watch studio, are back for an encore. In 2021, the two parties presented their first collaborative project, the 17.09 Honey and 17.09 Black, a duo defined not only by its mirrored colours but, more importantly, by its dial pattern. Five years later, and now as fellow members of the Alternative Horological Alliance (also comprising Fears, Fleming and Shapiro), the duo once again teams up and delivers the Ming x Massena LAB 57.09 Secret Honey. The honeycomb motif returns, yet the dial adds some tricks to make it even more lively. 

With the new 57.09 Secret Honey, Ming and Massena once again play on textures, patterns and colours referring to honey… But this time, the duo has decided to make things more complicated and far more animated. The inaugural 17.09 Honey was static. The new Secret Honey is constantly moving. And the honey hue only reveals itself when the discs that compose the dial rotate. The “secret” in the name won’t be so secret anymore.

In classic Ming, the dial is potentially the most complex element of this watch and is composed of several layers of metal and sapphire. 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 colour 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 MING calls “dynamic guilloché.” 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.

But now that we’ve talked about the dial, much needs to be said about the case too… In line with recent creations of the brand, such as the 57.05 Comet, the 57.04 Iris and the 57.04 Phoenix, the new 57.09 Secret Honey uses Ming’s fifth-generation design language, mostly distinguished by its striking triple-stepped lugs. The case, made of grade 5 titanium, measures 40mm in diameter, 10.17mm in thickness, and 47.8mm from lug-to-lug, with a solid 100m water resistance. It is paired with a polished, concave bezel and sapphire crystals on both sides.

Back to the lugs, which utilise the three steps to bring a rare yet bold design of the past (you may remember it from vintage Rolex Day-Date models), the Tridor effect, or three-tone scheme. 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 intermediate element under the bezel is also coated in TiN, and the result, which matches the honey tone of the dial, is certainly unconventional. The lugs themselves are nothing easy to produce, being each made of nine individual components.

Inside the case is a classic, tried-and-tested base movement by Sellita, the Ming 330.M2 (sharing its architecture with the SW330 GMT, explaining the discs rotating in 24h, 12h and 60min). Personalised with skeletonised bridges, brushed finishes and anthracite coating, the movement boasts about 50 hours of power reserve and runs at a 4Hz frequency, or 28,800 vibrations/hour.

The Ming x Massena LAB 57.09 Secret Honey is delivered with two straps: a vachetta-coloured goat leather strap by Jean Rousseau Paris for MING and a black FKM rubber strap. Each strap is fitted with a stainless-steel flying-blade tuck buckle with micro-adjustment. The watch is released in a limited run of 125 pieces, priced at CHF 7,250 (excl. taxes). Orders will open exclusively through www.ming.watch on 15 October 2026 at 1:00 PM GMT.