Ming’s Latest Entry-Level Everyday Watch Blends Classic and Contemporary Watchmaking

Old-school dial, new-school everything else.

Close-up of a black watch with a textured dial and glowing turquoise hour markers and hands against a blue background.

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On more than one occasion, when I’ve shown someone a Ming watch, their response has literally been “Tron watch.” And I get it. The Malaysian independent brand’s aesthetic is very futuristic and sci-fi-inspired, with innovative glowing lume treatments, layered sapphire dials, and contemporary, minimalist designs.

But despite the brand’s very forward-thinking design language and penchant for innovation, at the end of the day, Ming remains a largely traditional watchmaker. Its products are made in Switzerland, and it only produces mechanical watches.

Now, Ming is leaning harder into the traditional side of watchmaking with a dial unlike anything it’s ever made before.

Silver wristwatch with textured dial, blue hands, and dark blue leather strap on a dark blue surface. — Ming has produced a lot of unique dials, but nothing like this.

Hammer time

The Ming 37.06 Royal Selangor is the result of a collaboration with Royal Selangor, an esteemed 141-year-old Malaysian manufacturer of pewter goods. Ming tapped Royal Selangor to use its famous pewter, an alloy made from 97 percent tin with copper and antimony added to the mix, to create a custom dial for its 37-Series case.

Pewter is hardly a traditional watchmaking material, but the resultant dial style is, as Ming had Royal Selangor create a classic hammered dial out of pewter. The hammered pewter dial adds a ton of character to the 37.06, with its old-school charm contrasting against the watch’s modern titanium case with Ming’s signature flying lugs.

Round wristwatch with a textured silver dial, black hour and minute hands, and a black leather strap. — Royal Selangor’s hammered pewter dial for Ming is made mostly by hand.

More of Ming’s typical hyper-contemporary touches add to the 37.06’s unique aesthetic juxtaposition. The indices are engraved on the underside of the sapphire crystal and filled with Super-LumiNova Grade X1 lume, a common Ming feature that looks especially jarring here (in a good way). Ming’s typical modern handset also appears, with the hour hand filled with X1 lume and the minute hand outlined with it.

There’s a sapphire display caseback, as is the case with all modern Mings, through which you can see the Swiss-made Sellita for Ming SW300.M1 automatic movement. Another frequent go-to from the brand, the customized movement features a contemporary finish with skeletonized and rhodium-plated bridges and an anthracite-coated mainplate.

Two titanium wristwatches with textured silver dials, blue hands, and blue leather straps on a reflective dark surface. — The movement used is ol’ reliable, the anthracite-coated and skeletonized Sellita SW300.M1 for Ming.

Continuing the watch’s spirit of contradiction is the fact that, despite its hammered pewter dial, the 37.06 is a sports watch. Like other members of Ming’s entry-level 37-Series family, it boasts 100m of water resistance, and its compact 38mm x 11.05mm x 44.73mm case is made of fully brushed Grade 2 titanium to keep things light.

The included strap, however, leans dress watch and is an excellent fit for the old-school dial. It’s made by Ming’s Paris-based strap partner, Jean Rousseau, and is made of blue-gray goat leather. It’s equipped with quick-release curved spring bars and Ming’s proprietary flying-blade tuck buckle in titanium with a single micro-adjustment setting.

Black wristwatch with textured dial and glowing turquoise hour markers and hands on a dark leather strap. — Ming’s futuristic floating lume signature looks especially unique when paired with a traditional hammered dial.

Availability and pricing

Ming tends to go full-future on its watches. Remember, this is the brand that invented white-glowing lume, color-changing dials and a 3D-printed titanium bracelet without any screws or pins.

But the brand has recently taken a shine to the old ways, pairing traditional watchmaking techniques with its 21st-century ways. We saw that just last month, with the brand’s collaboration with J.N. Shapiro featuring a heat-treated guilloché dial, and we’re getting it again with the 37.06’s hammered pewter dial.

The 37.06 Royal Selangor will be available from Ming for CHF 5,000 (~$6,214) beginning August 6, while limited quantities are available now in person at select Royal Selangor boutiques. The watch is a limited edition of just 88 examples and is presented in a hammered pewter box designed by Ming and made by Royal Selangor.

Silver watch with a textured dial and blue leather strap against a black background.

Ming 37.06 Royal Selangor

Specs

Case Size	38mm
Movement	Sellita Cal. SW300.M1 for Ming automatic
Water Resistance	100m

$6,214 at Ming

About the Author:

Johnny Brayson is an editor at Gear Patrol mostly covering watches. He enjoys watches that are packed with blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em details and believes nearly every watch could stand to be a tad smaller.

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