While you’ve no doubt come across its better-known Swatch Group siblings of Longines and Tissot, Mido is a watchmaker that remains under the radar of many enthusiasts despite sitting in the Goldilocks intersection of robust build quality, interesting heritage and affordable price point. Its latest release, the Ocean Star Decompression WorldTimer GMT, is a perfect example of what Mido offers as a watchmaker with its colourful vintage-inspired design, practical GMT movement and an RRP that’ll make you wonder why you don’t already have one in the collection.
Drawing inspiration from the original Mido Ocean Star Rainbow Diver from 1961, this brightly coloured dive watch would pop on the wrist with its worldtimer bezel listing cities from around the world and their respective timezones, while the addition of a GMT hand makes international travel all the more straightforward. The steel case measures 40.5mm in diameter and a relatively slender 13.4mm in thickness, making it a thoroughly wearable timepiece that can go just about anywhere with 200m of water resistance and the versatility of either a rubber strap or steel mesh bracelet.
Beneath the rainbow dial is Automatic Mido Caliber 80 movement, which is COSC certified for accuracy, serves up multiple timezone tracking and a date window, as well as an extremely healthy 80 hours of power reserve. Now, while you’d often expect to pay a hefty premium for the addition of a second timezone, Mido has kept things extremely reasonable with the price of this new Decompression WorldTimer GMT coming in at $2000. Value-packed, to say the very least.
