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Originally founded in 1918, Mido is a Swiss watch brand that was created by George Schaeren. The idea for the brand’s name comes from the Spanish phrase “Yo mido” which directly translates as “I measure”. During the early years of the brand, the designs were very innovative. Mido was the first watchmaker to make watch dials in the shape of old car grills which is pretty much an arched doorway shape. However, this style is considered very out of date by modern-day standards and the brand has reverted back to making circular dials.

During the 1980s after the quartz crisis, the brand was acquired by the Swatch group, where it still remains today next to other brands such as Blancpain and Breguet.

In not too distant history Mido were known as being the best manufacturer of waterproof watches. The reason for this was that the Mido Commander did not have a case back. In fact, the watch was so waterproof that you would be able to pull the crown out underwater! The only way to access the movement was through the crystal in the front of the watch.

Strangely enough, Mido is one of the few Swiss watch companies that does not conduct the bulk of its business in either Europe or USA. Mido sells a lot of watches to the Asian market, in particular, China. However, over 70% of Mido watches are sold in Mexico. Outside of watch enthusiasts, Mido is more or less an unknown brand in the USA and only true watch enthusiasts have ever heard of it.

Mido Watch Review

Is Mido A Luxury Watch Brand?

Mido is really on the borderline of whether it is to be considered a luxury watch. The brand is generally held in higher regard than companies such as Hamilton or Tissot. However, it is not quite as well thought of as compared to entry-level luxury brands such as Tag Heuer or Longines.

If you are to compare Mido to the other brands owned by the Swatch group it becomes even more confusing. They are neither cheap nor expensive when compared with other Swiss-made brands.

Overall Mido is not well known enough in the western world to be considered a true luxury brand. If you went to Latin America or parts of Asia, the people would probably tell you that it is considered a luxury brand.

Are Mido Watches Good Quality?

Mido watches are of good quality and good value for money. In terms of their chronometer range of products, they offer fantastic value for money. Chronometer is not just something that a brand is allowed to print on their watch movements. There are measurements and safeguards in place in Switzerland to determine who can and cannot put this on their watches. Many of Mido’s watch movements are COSC certified.

Almost all Mido watches use ETA movements which are pretty much industry standard for an automatic mid-3-figure to low 4-figure watch. With that being said, they almost always take 4th place for the amount of COSC certificates given out per year. This is amazingly impressive considering they are up against very high-end luxury watch brands with gigantic budgets.

If you do have any problems with a Mido watch, they are covered by a 2-year warranty. For reference, if you’re buying a Mido in the US. Their service center is located in New York.

Where Are Mido Watches Made?

Mido watches are made in Switzerland. As previously mentioned, the brand was established in Le Locle, Switzerland, and is still headquartered there today.

The brand does have a head office in Shanghai, China. Although it does not make watches there. This is for strategic marketing purposes as the brand has good levels of popularity in the Asian market.

Are Mido Watches Expensive?

No, Mido watches are not expensive and are incredible value for money. Mido costs more money than a fashion brand such as Hugo Boss or TW Steel. However, its production and movements are vastly superior to these brands, so much so that they cannot be considered as rivals.

Mido is not a “cheap” brand as their watches generally cost anywhere from $400-$1000. Although for this price you would be hard-pressed to find a watch of similar quality. Sure there are many watch brands that price themselves within these brackets, but their quality is simply not as good.

Mido is most likely cheaper than other brands of its quality, simply because it is less popular.

Do Mido Watches Retain Their Value?

For the most part, Mido watches retain their value. Due to the lack of both supply and demand of used Mido watches in the USA, the prices are pretty stable. Whilst you can buy a Mido watch fairly easily thanks to the internet, it would be unlikely if you would find them very easily by walking into a random watch store. Vintage Mido watches are proof of this, by having a browse of various listings on ebay, you can see that watches from the 80s are still worth just as much as they purchased for.

Due to their solid movements and craftmanship, if you buy a Mido you would not lose anywhere near as much money in depreciation compared to other watches at this price point. This is largely due to the fact that Mido uses ETA COSC movements compared to other brands Japanese quartz movements in this price range.

The Best Mido Watches

Mido Ocean Star

The Mido Ocean Star series are divers watches produced by the brand. All of the watches in this range all have screw down crowns and 200 meter water resistance as standard. Where they differ are the case shapes and movements.

For the most part, the chronograph models will be Swiss ETA quartz movements. For the non-chronograph models, you will find Ocean Stars containing caliber 80 movements which are modified ETA automatics. The cool thing about the Mido automatic ocean stars (not pictured) is that they are day-date dive automatic watches. This is really quite unusual since and divers watch is usually just date only.

As expected with all Mido watches, they are high quality and very good value for the price.

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Mido Multifort Watch

The Mido Multifort chronograph is one of the most expensive models that Mido makes. This is because the movement in the Multifort is a Valjoux 7750, arguably one of the best and most reliable automatic chronograph movements of all time. It should be noted that there are some variations of the Multifort which have 2 subdials are not Valjoux, although if you’re paying over $1500, rest assured there will be a movement of equal quality.

Available in a variety of colors, the most popular scheme is the renowned orange and black. There are not many other brands associated with these colors other than Mido and Hugo Boss. Obviously Boss makes chronograph watches as well, but they cannot be compared with the vastly superior quality of Mido precision movements.

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Mido Commander

The commander is the most well-known design of Mido and has not really changed since the 1950s. Unlike a lot of modern-day watches, it has a modest 37mm dial and no giant lugs or chronograph pushers increasing the watch size even more. In fact, if you have skinny wrists, this is certainly the ideal Mido watch for you.

Inside is a classic day-date automatic movement that will not let you down. It is a standard ETA 2386-2 with a 40 hour power reserve, which is more than sufficient for an automatic. The bracelet is also unusual compared to modern-day steel-linked or jubilee styles.

The watch is not as water tight as the original commander series but is still perfectly waterproof up to 50 meters.

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Mido Baroncelli

The Baroncelli is a very simple and elegant dress watch. It has an obvious minimalist design and is a lot slimmer than almost any other watch of its style, measuring only 7mm. The date window on the pictured watch is displayed between the 4 and 5 o’clock position, but similar Baroncelli watches can be found with date windows at the usual 3 o clock position.

Compared with its competitors for this style of watch, the Baroncelli offers great value for money. If you wanted a dress watch from a brand such as Tissot or Frederique Constant you would probably pay a similar price, although get a worse quality movement.

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Mido Belluna Heures & Minutes

The Mido Heuers & Minutes is an incredibly unique design. You will struggle tremendously to find an automatic watch of this design available for under $1000, let alone under $500. The only brand it looks anywhere near similar to is A Lange & Sohne.

Powered by an ETA 2825-2, you can be confident that although the design is unusual, the movement is reliable and won’t cost you too much money to service. The dial functions differently from a standard watch as the seconds are featured on a separate subdial to the hours and minutes. Tucked between the two dials is the date wheel, completing a very unusual and appealing design.

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