Ming and Massena LAB reunite for the 57.09 Secret Honey with a moving dial

Ming and Massena LAB have reunited for the 57.09 Secret Honey, a 125-piece limited edition priced at CHF 7,250 before taxes. Orders open exclusively through ming.watch on 15 October 2026 at 1 PM GMT, with a public debut following at WatchTime New York between 16 and 18 October.

The watch is a sequel to the pair's first collaboration of 2021, the 17.09 Honey and 17.09 Black, a 200-piece duo defined by its mirrored colors and honeycomb motif. Where that original dial sat still, the new one is constantly in motion, and the honey hue appears only as its parts rotate.

A dark brown, lacquered, circular-brushed base is beneath three rotating sapphire discs, each with an anti-reflective coating and its own perforation pattern and color. One completes a revolution every 24 hours, the next every 12 hours, and the last every 60 minutes, so the overlapping apertures never repeat the same arrangement.

Selected elements carry orange-emitting Super-LumiNova or MING Polar White, while the 12-hour and 60-minute discs hold the honey-colored hour and minute indications that glow orange in the dark. Ming calls the continuous shifting pattern 'dynamic guilloché', and the 'Secret' in the name comes from the color staying hidden until the discs move.

The indices, along with the Ming and Massena LAB logos, are engraved into the box-style sapphire crystal above and filled with Polar White, forming a second luminous layer. The dial layout returns the nod to the 17.09: 'Ming' replaces the three o'clock marker and 'M Lab' replaces nine.

Ming, the independent watchmaker founded by photographer Ming Thein, and Massena LAB, the studio of collector William Massena, are now fellow members of the Alternative Horological Alliance, alongside Fears, Fleming and Shapiro. Both have grown markedly since that first joint release half a decade ago.

The case uses Ming's fifth-generation design language, recognizable from the 57.05 Comet, 57.04 Iris and 57.04 Phoenix, and most visible in the triple-stepped lugs. Grade 5 titanium measures 40mm across, 10.17mm thick and 47.8mm lug-to-lug, with 100 meters of water resistance and a concave bezel.

Those lugs carry a Tridor three-tone finish recalling vintage Rolex Day-Date executions. Natural titanium forms the outer step, a yellow-gold-toned TiN coating covers the middle, and a rose-gold-toned TiSiN finishes the innermost, with matching bands on the case. Each lug is assembled from nine individual components.

Inside runs the Sellita-based Ming 330.M2, a movement sharing its architecture with the SW330 GMT, which explains the 24-hour, 12-hour and 60-minute disc rotations. Skeletonized bridges, brushed finishes and an anthracite coating are visible through the sapphire caseback. Power reserve is about 50 hours at 4Hz.

The movement measures 26.2mm across and 4.1mm thick, carries 25 jewels and is not chronometer certified. It winds automatically and drives hours and minutes only, leaving the complication to the dial, which is the element Ming has spent the most effort developing here.

Two straps are supplied: a vachetta-colored goat leather strap by Jean Rousseau Paris made for Ming, and a black FKM rubber strap, each fitted with a stainless-steel flying-blade tuck buckle offering micro-adjustment.

The launch price is roughly $8,705 once Swiss francs are converted, though the listed tag is CHF 7,250 excluding tax. The intermediate element beneath the bezel carries the same TiN coating as the middle lug step, extending the shifting black-and-honey palette into the case itself.

The moving dial has drawn comparisons beyond watchmaking. The rotating pattern recalls Ernest Borel cocktail pieces, a likeness the brand itself notes, and the tri-color case echoes Rolex Tridor watches. It is a blend of older inspiration and current manufacture, done in titanium rather than steel or gold.

We have covered Ming's rise through several generations of iteration across our coverage of style, where the brand has stood out among independent watchmakers for doing what few others attempt. The honeycomb idea here pushes further than the 2021 original, making a motif that once sat still genuinely kinetic.

What the dial is made of

The dial stacks metal and sapphire in layers. Only when their apertures align does the warm honey tone emerge, giving the name its function.

Above them, the engraved indices and logos form a second luminous layer in Polar White, so the watch reads twice in the dark: once from the discs, once from the crystal.

When and how to order

The public presentation follows at WatchTime New York on 16 to 18 October, where the Secret Honey can be handled ahead of delivery. With 125 pieces, the run is small enough that the October opening is likely to close quickly.