Hands-On: Ming’s New 20.01 Series 3 Chronograph Is The Best Of What The Brand Does So Well
I’ve been set on a Ming for the past few years. I’ve come close to pulling the trigger a few times, but folks who follow my brand coverage know I haven’t quite gotten there yet. Maybe part of that is because there is one Ming that I love above all others and is far out of reach, so I’ve been content to let the brand live in that space for me. That watch is the 20.01, Ming’s central counter chronograph powered by the fantastic AgenGraphe movement made by Agenhor for Ming and part of the brand’s “Special Projects Cave.” I think it’s the platonic ideal of Ming at its finest: experimenting with dial design, case material, and a fantastic movement done to their specifications. Just look at their “Series 2” version below with its punchy mix of colors and then-new dial technology.
Today, Ming announced the newest version of this watch, the 20.01 Series 3. The watch follows suit from the Series 2, with a central counter chronograph, and like that watch and the original 20.01, it features a first-of-its-kind dial innovation. In all these ways and more, it’s quintessentially “Ming” from top to bottom. In seven years, Ming has codified its own design language and innovative ethos, and this is no exception. It’s pretty damn attractive, but it’s also pretty damn expensive. The new 20.01 Series 3 will set you back CHF 43,500, with a 30% deposit and the balance on delivery. The watches are set to be delivered in October of this year. Only 20 will be made, but I think those 20 buyers will be plenty happy.
Before we get into all the things that have changed – because there are plenty – I want to look at the one thing that drew me to the 20.01 in the first place: the manually-wound Agenhor caliber AGH-6361.FA a.k.a. the “AgenGraphe.” Announced in 2017, the AgenGraphe is one of the most remarkable, gorgeous, and non-traditional-looking chronographs to come onto the market in quite a long time (decades even). Quill & Pad has a great story covering this caliber, one that won me over to the movement a while back, but just looking at it is really enjoyable. In short, the AgenGraphe is a chronograph with an extra central hand that acts as a minute counter. These designs are rare but are some of my favorites, like the vintage Longines Doppia Lancetta 13ZN. It looks like a split-second chronograph, but in reality, it’s something almost more clever.
With their 20.01 Series 2 (which I was lucky enough to photograph thanks to my friend James Kong, an avid collector and talented photographer of Ming – and other – watches), Ming took the the movement and put its own spin on the aesthetics with anthracite DLC bridges with diamond cut edges for longevity of surface finishing and design consistency across their second-generation watches. The new 20.01 Series 3 has changed this design to 5N (rose gold) coated bridges to match the rose gold case, but the movement functionally remains the same.
In many ways, this is Ming’s most traditional take on high-end, complicated watchmaking. The aesthetics cover a lot of the same ground you’d expect from manufacturers like F.P. Journe (specifically on the T30 Anniversary Tourbillon) or Parmegiani Fleurier’s recent Toric release, with a grained texture on the gold plates gold. The core of the movement is the same. In that way, the choice between the two (if Series 2 was still being made) would be purely aesthetic. But it feels like the material allowed Ming to highlight a touch more attractive finishing.
Putting price aside, if this was a purely aesthetic consideration, then the Ming 20.01 Series 3 is 90% or more about the dial. The brand has debuted what they believe is an industry-first dial technique that allows them to use copious amounts of lume, something that has become a hallmark for the brand, far more than they’ve ever used before.
Above is the old Series 2 again. In that case, the dial base was made from a grade 2 titanium plate with a Clous-de-Paris pattern. That plate also served as a bridge component part of the setting train. Using a sapphire dial with gradient print, the Clous-de-Paris pattern fades from the edges to allow printed scales for the scale markings. On top of it, all is another sapphire dial with a triangular mosaic featuring 3,300 triangular elements etched at three different heights and varying opacity into a 1.1mm thick optical-grade sapphire. It’s all quite a nice looking combination of techniques but the one thing I noticed with the Series 3 is that what the Series 2 did best was with regards to legibility of that scale.
The Series 3 dial features a different dial pattern: a radially spirally burst of white plots that look somewhat like guilloché. In reality, Ming has introduced a unique borosilicate dial with 600 cavities, created using advanced femtosecond laser technology in collaboration with FEMTOprint SA. On close inspection, you can see the 3D shape of these cavities, which were hand-filled using syringes and a liquid Super-LumiNova X1 mixture.
It’s an incredibly effect albeit a bit dizzying. At the edge of the top crystal the watch also features a pulsometer scale which overlaps the borosilicate dial pattern and is only visible at certain angles. At oblique angles, the effect fades away to some extent and takes on another light.
If the first thing Ming does well is making a luminous watch, the second feature you can always count on is the “dial inversion,” as seen above and below. I won’t bore you with the explanation of the physics of light, but when exposed to more direct light at the correct angle, the dial reveals the movement underneath. If you look, you’ll see perlage on the back side of the movement plates, so it seems as though Ming has thought of everything from front to back.
And yes, there’s the lume. Because of the voids and the amount of space available on the dial for lume, the folks at Ming did the calculations for me and told me that there’s 18 to 20 times the amount of lume on this watch than on the “Starlight” model I recently covered. That’s a massive difference. I’d go out for a cup of coffee around the corner, and after less than 5 minutes in the sun, the watch would have visible lume indoors for a remarkable amount of time.
For people digging into the minute details, the strap is made by Jean Rousseau, with a 22mm lug width that tapers down to 18mm. I wore the “Starlight” on a bracelet and hadn’t tried a Ming on strap in a while. The brand has gone all-in on keeperless design, and it’s frankly far more comfortable and less obtrusive than any strap in my collection.
The last point on the watch before we get to my final thoughts is the hands. I don’t think I’ve ever had the buying of a watch come down to a yes or no on hands. It’s not to say it couldn’t happen, but it hasn’t yet. Ming’s hands are another part of their overall design. They’re also not my favorite shape on the market. In this case, I found them a bit hard to tell apart at a glance, especially with the 18k 5N rose gold and the Super LumiNova really blending in with the rest of the gold and lume on the dial side. The blued chronograph hands didn’t suffer in the same way, but it’s a consideration.
As for the comfort and wearability of the watch, that’s another point in its favor. Ming has a distinct case design language, though, like many people, it took me some time to warm up to its visuals. I find their watches really comfortable on the wrist, and in this case, that was only furthered by the fact that the midcase is made of titanium grade 5. That cut down on the weight of the watch significantly, and I found it to be a comfortable balance – heavier than the Series 2 in titanium, lighter than gold, so maybe more like steel. The shaped and hollowed-out lugs also help with that weight consideration.
This is only Ming’s second precious metal case. It comes in at 41.5mm in diameter and 14.2mm thick and is comprised of 34 parts and 4 different finishes, all of which really come together quite thoughtfully. Sometimes, after months of reviewing watches, it’s hard to remember if dimensions like this seem too big or too thick, and that’s just a matter of personal preference anyway.
If I had to pick out one major critique, it’s that the illegibility of the pulsometer scale left me a bit stumped. It seems like the decision to put any sort of scale on the crystal was thought of independently of the new borosilicate dial pattern and the interaction between the two. In all fairness, I found I could easily see the scale when sitting in a darker/shadowy environment with no harsh light and tilting my hand, so I’m viewing the watch at 45º from straight-on. In fact, it highlights the very cool depth between the dial and the domed sapphire, but at most other angles, it’s impossible to read.
This is where I’ll hypothesize a bit. There’s always a difference between how things look in pictures and how they look in real life. You can allude to three-dimensionality in images, but since the result is always viewed in 2-D, you can never capture things perfectly. In some ways, this watch works better in person than in pictures – and I think it looks pretty great in photos. However, I have this sneaking suspicion that some design decisions were made because of the visual impact on the 2-D image rather than the wearability. If Ming had left the dial flat, without luminous material on the outer three rings, it would have resulted in a much more legible watch. You’d see more of the movement, which might visually conflict with that scale, but I don’t think as much as it does with the busy dial pattern. It’s possible (as one colleague suggested) that a smoked dial crystal might also alleviate that problem.
Can I claim that this one complaint ruins the entire watch? Not in the slightest. If I were shopping for a watch at this price point and already a lover of Ming (as I am), I would be all over the 20.01 Series 3. For all the experiments that Ming did with this watch – the ones that I thought worked perfectly and the ones that didn’t – it’s the very way that Ming experiments that I think makes them one of the best young brands on the market.
Over a week with this watch, I was surprised how often I returned to it for more wrist time. It almost became a habit – a magnetic pull – the recurring way I took the watch out of the packaging, wore it for a while, and then felt guilty before putting it back for safekeeping. A while later – sometimes an hour, sometimes a half a day – the cycle would start again. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve felt that way about a watch in the past year or more, whether it’s one I own or one I’m borrowing; frankly, I couldn’t think of a better endorsement.
Ming 20.01 Series 3; 41.5mm diameter by 14.2mm thick 5N (rose gold) and grade 5 Titanium case, with 50m water resistance. Fused borosilicate dial with 600 radially symmetric voids filled with lume; Sapphire glass domed crystal with printed hours, minutes, and pulsometer scale. 5N (rose gold) hour and minute hand with lume, plus blued chronograph and central counter hands. Agenhor for Ming “AgenGraphe” movement with 5N covered plates with 55 hours of power reserve. Jean Rousseau for Ming Anthracite goat leather strap with Alcantara lining. Price: CHF 43,500 with 30% deposit and balance on delivery
Hodinkee
