
The latest from Ming, the 37.02 Ghost, is something of a study in titanium, a favorite material here at Worn & Wound. Members of our team have been fans of titanium for years for its light weight and its frequent association with many of the tool watches we’ve come to love. Titanium was a rarely used material in watchmaking not that long ago, but it’s so prevalent now that it’s easy to forget that at one time it was considered quite exotic. The Ghost taps into some of that exoticism, and reminds us just how strange and, at least in some ways, how ill suited titanium can be to watchmaking – a fact that makes a watch like this all the more impressive.
The 37.02 Ghost is made entirely from grade 2 titanium, a material often referred to as “pure” titanium. This material is distinct from grade 5 titanium, which is much more common in modern watchmaking, in a number of ways. Grade 5 titanium is made up of significant quantities of aluminum and was developed to be relatively easy to machine for applications in aerospace and other industries. Those qualities also, eventually, made it well suited to watchmaking, and it’s really a special bonus that grade 5 titanium can be finished with a polish and has an overall brighter appearance than other titanium allows.
Grade 2 titanium is an entirely different animal. Ming notes that pure titanium is extremely difficult to cut, and there’s even a significant risk that grade 2 titanium shavings and dust can catch fire during the manufacturing process. Before grade 5 titanium was developed, the relatively few watches made from titanium at all were crafted from grade 2 titanium, which led to the perception that they were exotic, rare, and kind of special. Also important: grade 2 titanium can’t be polished. A watch made from the material is going to have an inherently more industrial look, as well as a “warmer” quality to it because of pure titanium’s natural color.
For Ming, using grade 2 titanium represents an engineering challenge that’s been realized in the 37.02 Ghost. It also allows for a design that is uniquely tied to the architectural inspiration that has always been a driving force at the brand in one way or another. The “architectural finish” on the metallic surfaces of the watch (including the dial and buckle, which are both made of pure titanium) keep the focus on the material itself, and celebrate it. The entire case is brushed, and the dial, in two parts, features both radial and circular brushing. The end result is a dial that appears shinier and brighter than anticipated, and the piece as a whole is effectively a tour of what makes grade 2 titanium special, and how it can be somewhat limiting. We had a chance to get a quick hands-on look at the Ghost in Geneva earlier this month, and it’s about as dynamic as a watch made from grade 2 titanium can be, and would seem to represent Ming pushing the material to its limit, or at least getting close to it.
The 37.02 Ghost, being that it’s a titanium watch, is also incredibly light, coming in at just 35 grams. It also benefits from case design tweaks developed during the making of the 37.09 Bluefin, and like that watch has a deeper than advertised water resistance rating. The official depth rating is 100 meters, but Ming confidently states in their press materials that the Ghost far exceeded that 100 meter threshold, and is in fact good to something closer to 260 meters beneath the surface. This type of overengineering is becoming more and more of a Ming staple as their releases become more complex and ambitious, and is one of the reasons charting the course of the brand at this moment in their history is so exciting.
Rounding out the specs, the case of the Ghost comes in at 38mm, just like other watches in Ming’s 37 series. It’s 11mm tall and 44.5mm from lug to lug. The movement is the Sellita SW300.M1, a custom version of the venerable SW300 caliber that has been given a round of aesthetic improvements, including anthracite skeletonized bridges and a custom rotor (which has also been skeletonized).
The 37.02 is a limited run of 250 watches. It’s available now on the Ming website at a retail price of CHF 3,500. Ming