MING x Massena LAB Collaboration Puts Honeycomb Dials Back in the Spotlight
These limited editions are certain to sell-out fast.
Watch industry figures turned brand owners, Ming Thien and William Massena, are about to drop a pair of collab watches featuring a distinctive honeycomb dial.
The 17.09 MING x Massena LAB Limited Edition watches, with black and honey-colored dials, also represent the first time MING has ever collaborated.
While Honeycomb dials are a collector favorite found on a number of mid-century vintage watches including Rolex and Omega models, MING and Massena LAB take the term far more literally than most, with a perfect hexagonal matrix neatly framed by a circular brushed outer ring.
The watch’s Arabic hour markers have been laser engraved onto the reverse of the sapphire crystal and filled with Super-LumiNova to preserve the clean lines of the dial and introduce a floating, three dimension effect, which also exposes more of the luminous material, making for a brighter glow in low-light conditions. Both brand logos are given equal-billing, positioned at the three and nine o’clock positions.
Ming’s signature 38mm 17.09 case shape, with its flared lugs, is presented here in a mix of brushed and polished finishes. The watches use a Sellita SW330-2, modified by Schwarz-Etienne to include an independent hour hand adjustment to preserve timekeeping accuracy when adjusting for timezones or daylight savings.
Both watches drop on Thursday May 20 at 10:30am EST, via Massena LAB. Just 50 honey-dialed examples were be produced, priced $2,795 USD, while 150 black-dialed pieces will be offered for $2,595 USD.
Thien was a renowned watch photographer and chief of strategy at high-end camera brand, Hasselblad, before launching MING, while William Massena ran the Timezone forum, before serving as Chief Operating Officer at watch auction house, Antiquorum, before setting up Massena LAB.
Elsewhere in watches, G-SHOCK looks to Neon Genesis Evangelion for inspiration.
