Welcome to Watch-Guy Watches, GQ’s monthly curation of high-end timepieces for the true watch nerds among us. This June, we’ve got an independently produced chronograph straight out of a science fiction film, a simple yet beautiful luxury sports watch, a dress model with an American-made dial, and a vibrant beauty that’s perfect for summer.
Few brands in the industry are as original or creative as Hrologer Ming. In 2017, Ming Thein, a talented photographer and a student of physics and horology, set his creative eye on watchmaking and quickly established himself, along with a small team of like-minded collaborators, as the mad geniuses of the microbrand world. If you need any evidence of their considerable skills, look no further than the new MING 20.01 Series 5.
If it looks to you like something out of a science fiction film, then congratulations on your working retina. The Series 5 features “the industry’s first dial that is laser milled from a single block of metal to create complex radial strakes that have interlocking surface contours in both vertical and horizontal planes.” (For those of us who don’t speak watchmaker: It sort of looks like you’re gazing through the watch crystal into the guts of a Fender Rhodes electric piano to see the strings.) The watch is part of Ming’s 20.01 series of watches, which pairs a spectacular dial with a central-counter chronograph and a sophisticated movement produced for the brand by Agenhor.
Is there a watch in existence that makes better and more frequent use of lasers? After the laser milling, the dial is vapor-coated in an ocean-blue color and then refined once again with a laser to get that coating just right. The process results in what the brand calls a “stonewashed” texture. I wish I could replicate the dial’s textures on my 501s. When combined with the crystal, which is LASER-etched with the dial indices and chronograph scales and filled with a proprietary, white-glowing luminous material, the results are truly spectacular. It’s impossible to precisely describe the watch’s look because there has never been a dial like this made before.
Powering the MING 20.01 Series 5 is an equally compelling caliber, the AgenGraphe by Swiss specialist movement maker Agenhor. The beautifully decorated, hand-wound engine powers a central chronograph—there are no totalizers on the dial as in more conventional chronographs—with instantaneously jumping minutes and a proprietary horizontal clutch mechanism. Its 5N rose gold-coated bridges and ample anglage provide plenty of visual interest for those who care about such things, which, given just how much visual interest is generated here, should be just about everyone who comes into contact with the watch.
About The Author
