Ming and Massena LAB Turn the Honeycomb Dial Into a Secret Watch

Ming and Massena LAB are back in honey territory, but this time the idea is less about warmth alone and more about visual misdirection.

The 57.09 Secret Honey is a limited-edition follow-up to the 2021 17.09 Honey, built around a dial that shifts as the watch runs.

It’s a time-only watch on paper, but the display gives it the character of a secret or mystery watch, where the trick is part of the appeal.

At a glance

• Ming and Massena LAB have released the 57.09 Secret Honey, a 125-piece limited edition follow-up to their 2021 Honey collaboration.
• The dial uses three rotating discs with cut-out slots to reveal and conceal orange and white lume beneath a shifting honeycomb motif.
• It is priced at CHF 7,250 excluding taxes and is available through Ming’s online boutique from October 15 at 1pm GMT.

A honeycomb dial with a mechanical trick

The main attraction is the dial, which turns a familiar honeycomb pattern into something more elusive.

Rather than using a static motif, the 57.09 Secret Honey has three rotating discs that move at different speeds and alter the appearance of the hexagonal openings.

Those discs rotate once every 60 minutes, 12 hours and 24 hours respectively.

Slots cut into the discs reveal or obscure orange and white lume on the layer below, so the dial changes in both colour and apparent position as time passes.

The 60-minute and 12-hour discs also carry arrow-shaped indicators at their outer edges.

Those indicators act as the minute and hour hands, pointing to a peripheral 12-hour scale around the dial.

That makes the watch functionally simple, but visually much more layered than a conventional two-hand design.

Titanium casework with honey-toned lugs

The watch uses Ming’s fifth-generation case architecture in titanium, measuring 40mm across and 10.17mm thick.

Its triple lugs are a key part of the design, with a curved, stepped profile that gives the case more structure than a standard lug layout.

For this edition, each lug layer has a different finish.

The smallest outer lug keeps a natural titanium appearance, the middle lug uses a TiN coating with a yellow-gold look, and the larger inner lug uses a TiSiN coating with a darker rose-gold tone.

The result is a graduated warm-metal effect that plays directly into the honey theme without turning the whole case gold-coloured.

A familiar automatic movement in a darker finish

Inside is the Sellita for MING calibre 330.M2, an automatic movement running at 4 Hz with a 50-hour power reserve.

It can be seen through the exhibition caseback, where the rotor and mainplate carry dark anthracite finishing.

The caseback edge is inscribed with key details, including the watch’s 100-metre water-resistance rating.

Details & Specifications

Release context and collector appeal

The 57.09 Secret Honey sits in a small but interesting corner of modern watch design, where the display itself becomes part of the complication.

It should appeal to collectors who like Ming’s architectural approach but want something more animated than a clean sector-style dial.

The 125-piece run also gives it a defined level of scarcity, while the link to the 2021 Honey collaboration gives the release an obvious continuity.

Ming has said it has addressed server capacity after website issues during the 17.09 Honey launch, a practical detail that will matter to anyone planning to try for one at release.

At its best, the 57.09 Secret Honey works because the theatre is integrated into the time display rather than added on top.