Ming Makes a Slim 37mm Dress Watch From Crystallized Titanium With the 51.01 Halo

MING is best known for watches with lume built into the crystal, technical cases and a sporty character. The new 51.01 Halo goes the other way. It’s MING’s version of a dress watch, with a case and hands designed from scratch, hour markers that don’t glow, and proportions that are very attractive: 37mm wide and 8mm thick. The colors are black and rose gold, the classic dress watch combination, and one MING has barely used until now.

The case measures 37mm wide and 8mm thick, with a lug-to-lug of 43mm, and looks like rose gold, but it’s titanium. Like all metals, titanium is made of tiny crystals called grains, normally far too small to see. MING heats the titanium in a vacuum to as high as 1,200°C, which makes those grains grow, then cools it slowly so they stay that size. Acid etching then attacks the surface unevenly, so each grain catches the light a little differently and the case shows a patchwork texture instead of a smooth finish. Last, the case is coated in 5N, the reddish shade of rose gold, to give it the color. The result is a case with the warmth of gold, the weight of titanium and a unique pattern. The front crystal is a box sapphire, and both crystals are anti-reflective on each side. Water resistance is 50 meters, which is good enough for a dress watch of these proportions.

The dial is black lacquer, polished in the center and brushed around the edge. MING engraves the hour markers into the crystal, as it does on most of its watches, and here fills them with gold-colored lacquer. There’s no lume. The hands are new and very thin, coated to match the case.

Inside is the La Joux-Perret calibre 7380.M1, made exclusively for MING and heavily reworked. It’s 2.7mm thick, beats at 3 Hz and has a power reserve of about 90 hours, which is a lot for a movement this slim. The skeletonized bridges are coated matte anthracite and sit over a black mainplate, with hand-finished bevels and MING’s spoke motif on the barrel and ratchet wheel. This is MING’s second movement with La Joux-Perret after the 37.04 Monopusher. It comes on a goat leather strap in black from Jean Rousseau, 20mm, with quick-release bars and a titanium tuck buckle in the same gold finish.

The 51.01 Halo is limited to 150 pieces and it's priced at CHF 10,900. Orders open November 10 at 1pm GMT, and the watch will be at IAMWATCH in Singapore from November 12 to 15. See more on the MING website.