It’s been a few years since Ming released the massively popular 18.01 H41 dive watch, and fans of the brand have been clamoring for more ever since. It would have been easy enough for Ming to re-release the 18.01, maybe with a new colorway, but the brand is not one to rest on their past successes and the Ming 37.09 Bluefin is far more than a slight update to a familiar model. Instead, Ming has completely re-thought what a dive watch from Ming can be, and the results are absolutely stunning — and quintessentially Ming.
If you follow Ming on social media, the release of the 37.09 Bluefin today shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. After all, the brand has been posting throwbacks and teasers left and right to get us all excited about this release. Today, we get to see the new watch: A 600 meter water-resistant, dual crown diver inspired by the architecture of Ming’s recent 37-series watches, complete with Ming’s signature flared lugs and a preposterous preponderance of lume.
Whether putting out affordable time-only watches or ultra-light record-setters and wild tourbillons, Ming has been unafraid and uncompromising. This details-first approach might help to explain why it took so long for Ming to follow up on the 18.01. Apparently, Ming experimented with several successors to their first dive watch, focusing on outperforming the 1000 meter water-resistant dive watch on a technical level.
Eventually, after producing several prototypes at thicknesses creeping up to 19mm, they realized a new path was necessary, so they pulled back and refocused. Instead of trying to outperform the 18.01 with a brute-force approach, Ming focused on developing a fully capable dive watch that reflected the evolving aesthetic framework of their latest releases.
This meant completely rethinking the internal structure of the 37-series case design, tweaking the curvature of both the front and rear sapphire crystal, and (for the first time) adding a second crown to the case. The resulting watch looks more Ming-like than the 18.01 and is surprisingly svelte and well-proportioned while retaining all the visual hallmarks of a recent Ming watch and satisfying all the technical requirements of a dive watch.
The Ming 37.09 Bluefin drops the external rotating bezel of the 18.01 in favor of a 60-click, uni-directional internal rotating bezel controlled by a crown at 4 o’clock. The lumed crown is fully sealed for water resistance and does not need to be either pulled out or screwed down, meaning you can adjust the bezel in the water without fear, just as you would a conventional external rotating bezel.
The fully luminous bezel is a part of the deep blue sapphire dial of the 37.09, meaning that when the bezel is rotated, the whole dial goes with it. To combat some of the obvious challenges that might present, Ming fell back on one of their favorite tricks and applied the timekeeping markers in luminous material on the underside of the primary sapphire crystal. Together, these elements make for a watch with plenty of depth and help the 37.09 feel less conventional than the 18.01, and more like a creation that could only have ever come from Ming.
The Ming 37.09 is well-proportioned and compact. The watch is 38mm in diameter and only 12.8mm thick, including the 2.8mm domed sapphire crystal/dial. As is Ming’s tendency, the 37.09 is also compact lug-to-lug, at only 44.5mm. The case is 316L Stainless Steel, and the watch comes on a newly designed (and highly engineered) molded FKM rubber strap. The lug width is 20mm, and the new strap will be available as a stand-alone option soon. The Ming 37.09 is powered by the Sellita for MING SW300.M1, a customized version of the well-known Sellita movement offering 50 hours of power reserve.
The Ming 37.09 Bluefin is priced at CHF 4,950. Pre-orders for the 500 pieces produced in 2024 will open at 1pm GMT on May 24, with deliveries slated to begin in October of this year. Pre-orders will require a 50% deposit at the time of order, with the rest paid on delivery. Ming
