Ming Thein

Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and raised in Australia and New Zealand, Ming Thein graduated with a Masters in theoretical physics from Balliol College, Oxford at the age of 16 before working in various consulting and private equity positions. In 2012 he became a full-time professional photographer, serving as brand ambassador for Leica and subsequently Chief of Strategy for Hasselblad as well as Advisor to the Board of DJI. He built an online community of over 150,000 photographers with a content archive spanning more than 1,800 articles.

Commissioning custom pieces gave Ming Thein insights into watch design and production, seeding the origins of MING. Their first watch, the 17.01, debuted in 2017.In 2019, MING won the Horological Revelation Prize at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève. Under his creative and engineering direction, MING has developed a unique design language with more than 60 references with a variety of complications and materials, including several world firsts such as the MING laser mosaic and the LW.01, the world's lightest mechanical watch.