Business News Ming, Fleming, And J.N. Shapiro Form 'Alternative Horological Alliance' And Announce Their First New Product

This isn't a "group," in the same way as Swatch or Richemont, but something closer to the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants (AHCI). The three brands have not announced any corporate conglomerate or profit-sharing. Instead, they are using the AHA to pool resources where it makes sense and show what can be done when reimagining portions of traditional watchmaking supply chains. 

While the AHA might seem like a surprise for three brands that aesthetically share very few similarities, with less than 20 years in existence between the three brands, they've each shown that the limitations of some watchmaking suppliers (both technical and, in some cases, in imagination or experimentation) can be overcome by going to suppliers outside the watchmaking space. 

For instance, Ming's record-breaking ultra-lightweight LW.01 was considered largely impossible by traditional suppliers until Ming decided to approach the case construction in a new way. J.N. Shapiro recently made what I consider the first fully "Made in America" watch since 1969, but to do so had to source the hairspring from a non-watch supplier who had not made hairsprings (at least at any time in recent decades) and had a minimum order of 5.3 miles of wire. The brands hope to combine this kind of ingenuity to push to the next level.

"We formed the AHA not only to multiply our collective strengths but also simply because we enjoy working with each other. By pooling resources, each brand can achieve things beyond its individual constraints. For example, we might have J.N. Shapiro make cases for us or for Ming to serve as an Asian reception point for future servicing for Fleming. We want to take an openly collaborative approach – for instance, the joint exhibition is a much stronger incentive for collectors to visit us in person during Geneva Watch Days than any one of our brands alone," said Ming Thein, founder of Horologer Ming.

The new association isn't looking for members, but it is willing to open its doors to other brands that share similar philosophies, subject to a unanimous vote. In the meantime, the three brands have announced at least one collaborative effort: a new "universal" tantalum bracelet designed by Ming and made by J.N. Shapiro, available in 21mm curved, 20mm curved, and 20mm straight versions. The end links will be interchangeable to fit all three brands without needing multiple bracelets.

"The development and prototyping of a tantalum bracelet from scratch in under four months demonstrates the kind of things we can do together under the AHA umbrella. The design was originally conceived by Ming but pushed by our curiosity and machining expertise at Shapiro to produce. Due to the shape and number of links in this bracelet, it is exponentially more challenging to do in tantalum versus more generic and less organic bracelets. It would have been much more difficult to do this as individual brands and the economics would not have worked. But now our customers benefit from a rare tantalum bracelet that is easily adaptable to different watches," said Joshua Shapiro, founder of J.N. Shapiro.

"The idea of the AHA is not so much of an exclusive club, but rather it's a forum for smaller, independent watch brands to support each other in our own aims and to collaborate to bring something new to market that we might not have been able to do alone," said Thomas Fleming of Fleming Watches.

For more information, visit www.aha.watch.