t was at Dubai Watch Week that we met Ming Thein, as his brand participated in its first ever watch show. The beautifully subtle designs of Ming, founded in 2017 in Kuala Lumpur by a group of collectors, have won over a global audience. Its models range from a few thousand to several tens of thousands of francs.

Today, Ming works in collaboration with recognised players such as Schwarz-Etienne or Agenhor to develop its models, which are assembled, adjusted and tested in Switzerland, with final quality control carried out “personally in Malaysia”. The ultra-creative brand was awarded the Prix de la Révélation Horlogère at the GPHG in 2019 for its 17.06 Copper model.

Europa Star: What is the essence of the Ming approach to watchmaking?

Ming Thein: First of all, we don’t claim to be a “heritage” brand! Like many others, we could have resurrected a pretty old name to appeal to GenZ. That’s not our approach, and we’re not afraid to make different, uncompromising proposals. Above all, we make the models we like ourselves. We are several co-founders, all collectors, who bring our inputs. As for me, I’m a photographer by trade, and there’s also a financier, a physicist... We make our models in Switzerland and have plans to open our own workshops in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

What is your distribution model?

It’s 100% e-commerce - this strategy was particularly beneficial to us during the pandemic. Our main markets are the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore. Today, our challenge is to be able to increase our production capacity in the face of frustrating waiting times. That’s why we’re opening our own workshops and improving our planning. This is also the rule of the game in our segment, since we also offer more ’accessible’ models: the less expensive a watch is, the more frustrated customers are with waiting times! Fortunately, the delivery time has been reduced to less than a month.

Are you also going to use physical outlets?

I’m not sure. A lot of retailers are coming to us, but we can’t give them the ’traditional’ margin that they expect, as a player in digital sales. We are still investing in brand building, logistics and distribution to ensure that all our customers have the same experience wherever they are in the world. One solution could be to design limited edition watches in collaboration with retailers. In any case, we’re bursting with ideas: we have at least 160 ideas for new watch models ready for production!