In the world of watch enthusiasts, Mido isn’t given much love and I can’t fathom why. I live in Canada and it is rare to see a watch shop selling Mido watches. It seems like Mido isn’t a well known brand in North America. It might be a bit more popular in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, as I see it more often when I travel. Even with it being more readily available in the rest of the world, it doesn’t seem to be popular in watch groups. It really is a shame because they have some seriously good looking watches. As I looked into the brand, I realized it’s potential. It has history, innovation, and an awesome price point.

The company was founded in 1918 on the 11th of November, and was eventually acquired by Swatch group. The name Mido comes from Spanish, Yo Mido, which translates to “I measure”. Since its inception, Mido has had three pillars that it upholds to this day. It combines innovation, aesthetics, and functionality all at an affordable price. In the 1920’s, Mido took inspiration from the automotive industry and shaped their cases to match radiators. In the 1930’s, Mido created a cork-crown sealing system called Aquadura. This water resistant feature was very rare back then, and was innovative at the time. In 1934, Mido also released their Multifort line which was not only self winding along with being water and shock resistant, but was also antimagnetic. Jumping forward in time, Mido comes in fifth place with the most COSC certified watches with only Rolex, Omega, Breitling, and Tissot ahead of it. This is according to The Watch Company website using 2015 data. For a more detailed list of Mido’s accomplishments over the years, visit their site.

Of course, I knew none of this when going into the brand. I knew that it was part of the Swatch group and from my basic research at the time, that it was a good watch brand, so I decided to give it a try. I wanted to get some hands-on experience with the brand, but due to COVID, lockdowns and the rarity of availability, it was hard to do. The ironic part is that I wasn’t really looking for any watch in particular, at the time I had the collector’s itch and I knew I wanted a new watch. But I did realize that I was missing a GMT in the collection, and that I didn’t want a Rolex copy. Thus, the hunt began.

As I hunted around I stumbled upon the Mido Multifort 80th Anniversary GMT Edition (reference number M005.929.36.031.00). It was strange. I usually find a watch then try to sleep on it. A majority of the time it leaves my head, and I can revisit it from time to time to see if I still feel that urge to buy it. This time I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I’m usually a sucker for steel watches, I was never drawn to gold, but this had a Gold PVD coating, and it didn’t seem too gaudy in the pictures. The dial was described as silver with Geneva stripes, though it looked more like a pearl white with a hint of metal flakes to me. The only thing I didn’t like was the brown leather strap. It looked like an alligator strap. However, with it’s 100 meters of water resistance along with the blue GMT and seconds hands, I knew that this watch belonged on a blue rubber strap. Luckily, I just so happened to have one ready for it.

When it comes to fit and finish, I would put Mido on in the introductory level of luxury Swiss watches. With hands-on experience, I noticed a few things right away. While manually winding the watch, I noticed the action was not as smooth as an Omega or Rolex but it was smooth enough. Though it was smooth, it did have a slight gritty sound to it, but not so bad that it was concerning. Turning the watch over, the exposed case back showed the decorated ETA based Mido caliber 1193. It wasn’t highly decorated but had the same Geneva stripes on the self winding rotor stamped with the brand’s name, slogan and the movement number.

Taking a closer look, the dial has applied hour markers, but it’s difficult to say if the rest are also applied or if it's raised text and is painted. Also, there is no lume on the watch, so don’t even bother looking at your wrist without a light source. The main hour and minute hands are gold, while the second hand and the GMT hand are a metallic blue that change depending on the light. The case is PVD coated in gold. It’s not a full rose gold or yellow, but lands somewhere in between. The outer ring consists of the names of the world’s 24 hour time zones, and can be moved with the crown at the 2 o’clock position. This does not adjust the second time zone, but rather it is used to mark what the second time zone you are tracking is by aligning the city with the T2 marker at the 9 o’clock position. To adjust the GMT hand along with the local time and date (date window located at the 3 o’clock position), you would need to use the second crown located at the 4 o’clock position. Once unscrewed, position one adjusts the GMT hand along with the date without stopping the second hand; this feature is considered to be a true GMT complication. If you pull the crown out to the second position, it will hack the movement (stop the second hand) and you can adjust the local time.

The local time is displayed in the standard 12 hour dial format, while the GMT is displayed using the 24 hour graduated scale. At first, it took me a moment to tell the time, like a child learning to read the face of a watch, but given time you get used to it. The case diameter is 42 mm with a thickness of 10.35 mm. The lug width is 22 mm so finding a strap or making the watch yours will be easy enough with a variety of options. The lug to lug measurement comes in at just under 49 mm. On my 7.25 inches (18.4 cm) wrist, it fits just right. It is not too large to be oversized, but was ready for the big watch trend when it was released in 1998.

Although I have no affiliation, Jomashop still has some of these in stock on their website. But Mido still has some options available if you are looking for a rose gold option. They have a very nice Multifort Dual time with a black dial, with all the upgrades you would want for a modern watch. To be honest, I might have gone with it if I didn’t already have too many watches with a black or blue dial. If I had more watches with lighter dials, I would have gone with the newest version, such as their Ocean Star. If you want more detailed specs on the watch, check out Jomashop. They break it down in great detail. Lastly, I would like to say that my experience from the Mido Multifort GMT 80th anniversary edition was so good. I couldn’t wait to dive into the Mido brand further and get a second watch. I highly recommend Mido for anyone starting their collection or simply adding to an existing one.