Worn & Wound
Ming and Massena LAB Launch a Sequel to a Landmark LE: the 57.09 “Secret Honey”
If you were around the micro/indie watch world in 2021, you almost certainly remember the release of the first Ming collaboration with Massena LAB. It was a limited edition that sold out incredibly fast (as most Ming releases did in those early days) and was notable for a few things beyond what I think is still an objectively cool design. First, this release came at the height of pandemic drop culture, and the quick sell through angered many Instagram commenters and there was a memorable backlash toward both brands (though I recall Ming taking the brunt of it). You could even argue that this release marked a sort of inflection point, and we began to see brands (including Ming) take steps with future releases to be more fair minded about how pieces are allocated. Second, when these watches eventually did make it to owners, there were a handful of notable and widely reported QC/mechanical issues (which of course were resolved by the brands, but still, not the cherry-on-top anyone was hoping for). Was the launch a catastrophe? Not really. Examples of these watches still routinely sell for well over retail on the secondary market. They’re one of a handful of releases from this era that really mark a specific moment in time. Ming and Massena are back with a second collaboration, at a time when both brands find themselves in a very different sort of situation. Which is just to say, there’s been a lot of growth in these last several years. When was the last time, for instan...
