{"id":131803,"date":"2021-12-28T17:00:19","date_gmt":"2021-12-28T09:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revolutionwatch.com\/?p=131803"},"modified":"2021-12-28T17:00:19","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T09:00:19","slug":"my-2021-watch-17-09-ming-x-massena-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revolutionwatch.com\/my-2021-watch-17-09-ming-x-massena-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"My 2021 Watch \u2014 17.09 Ming \u00d7 Massena LAB"},"content":{"rendered":"
There are few contemporary horological success stories that ring quite as clear and true as that of Ming Watches, the passion project of noted photographer and watch collector, Ming Thein. Anyone who has had even a passing meeting with the man will attest to his genuine love for horology, and his watches are a pure reflection of just that. His first watch, the 17.01, was an instant success, and what\u2019s more, it was a watch that pretty much any collector could afford to add to their stable. To be sure, there\u2019s no shortage of affordable watches out there \u2014 even back in 2017, when the 17.01 made its debut \u2014 but the value proposition for Ming\u2019s inaugural piece was off the charts. In essence, it was a $3K watch masquerading as a sub-$1K watch. For your money, you got a polished grade 5 titanium case, a manual winding Sellita movement (adjusted to five positions), and a unique guilloch\u00e9d dial capped off with a sapphire crystal. In the box were three additional quick-release straps, just to drive the point home.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to today, and Ming Watches is a full-fledged brand with some truly haute-inspired pieces under their belt. To be sure, even their high-end offerings still represent a tremendous value when compared apples to apples with the competition.<\/p>\n
Another success story is that of Massena LAB, the eponymous design house\/brainchild of industry veteran William Massena. Oh, and when I say \u201cindustry veteran,\u201d I really mean it; William has been a horological stalwart from day one, with deep ties to the auction industry, digital media and everything in between. Given his storied background, it was just a matter of time before he struck out on his own, which he\u2019s done to almost universal acclaim. And whether it\u2019s a sub-$1K design collaboration with micro-brand Unimatic, or an off-the-charts montre d\u2019\u00e9cole piece created with master watchmaker Luca Soprana, the results are instant classics \u2014 and usually instantly sold out.<\/p>\n
All of which brings us to the absolutely delightful train wreck that is the 17.09 Ming \u00d7 Massena LAB. Intended as a supergroup pairing of two industry darlings, the \u201cHoneycomb,\u201d as I\u2019ll refer to it from now on, was meant to be yet another success story in the vein of pretty much everything else that had been released by either brand up to this point. And indeed, that seemed to be the case, with the anticipation building to predictable heights in advance of its launch.<\/p>\n
And then it all went wrong.<\/div><\/div><\/div>
And this would seem to be the end of this story, if it weren\u2019t for yet another small issue: namely once the watches wound up on their new owners\u2019 wrists, it turned out that the modified Sellita movements, which featured jumping hour hands to facilitate easier time zone changes, weren\u2019t properly adjusted, leading to slack in the minute hands. Now, things like this happen all the time (I\u2019m looking at you, Mr. Tudor GMT), and are typically handled neatly by the manufacturer. Ming \u00d7 Massena was no different in this regard, offering to take back the affected watches at no charge and fix the offending movements. Unfortunately, the social media echo chamber wasn\u2019t ready to let go quite so easily and, egged on by shit posting accounts, turned what should\u2019ve been a minor snafu into nothing less than an existential attack on the integrity of the entire industry as perpetrated by two evil masterminds. Never mind that nothing could be further from the truth, but when coupled with a few less-than-ideal CS moments between both Ming and Massena, which were broadcast writ large, you had nothing less than the horological crime of the century.
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For Revolution USA\u2019s editor-at-large, the defining watch of 2021 is one that has elicited a rollercoaster of mixed emotions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":131804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":0},"categories":[242,103,86],"tags":[1370,241,2704,3120],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n