The name Mido comes from the Spanish term ‘Yo mido’, which means to measure, a fitting name for a brand which makes instruments to tell the time with. It was founded on the 11th of November 1918, the day of armistice and the end of the First World War. This year, the brand celebrates not only its 101st year of operations, but also a new partnership with the Red Bull Cliff Diving championship, the largest of such kind on the planet.
The watch they’ve used to signify the start of this new collaboration is the Ocean Star 600, a meaty no-fuss diving watch with a 600m water resistant case and rugged movement. The watch itself is a professional diving tool, and is subsequently rated as such having to pass the regulation ISO6425 which gives lots of detailed requirements of diving watches. WristReview considers 600m to be safe for impact watersports such as windsurfing and, in this case, cliff diving. It even includes a helium escape valve, though, that isn’t particularly necessary for this sport.
The case of the Mido is 43.5mm in diameter, so a large and modern size. It’s made of 316L stainless steel and comes on a stainless steel bracelet too. It even has a ceramic bezel, which for a watch from a relatively affordable brand (compared to other Swatch companies) is quite surprising, though in a nice way. The dial features a blue lacquer with white SuperLumiNova in the markers and hands for extreme legibility.
Inside the watch is the automatic calibre 80 Si, which a you probably guessed is based on the reliable ETA C07.821 movement. It has 25 jewels, runs at 3Hz and offers an 80 hour power reserve. There’s a silicone balance spring in this watch for superior accuracy, and the mainspring in the barrel is made of a material called ELINFLEX, a material developed by Nivarox and the Swatch Group. ELINFLEX allows the spring to be wound more tightly than a normal mainspring, and thus conserve more power for the same space. Other watches from the Swatch Group such as Glashutte Original have also used this before.
So, there’s some serious tech inside this watch, from springs to water seals and so forth. The price for all that and the connection to the Red Bull Cliff Diving Championship? $1700. Which is quite the bargain.
Here are the dates for the upcoming competitions in the championship:
12 May: Dublin, Ireland
2 June: Polignano a Mare, Italy
22 June: São Miguel, Azores, Portugal
14 July: Beirut, Lebanon
24 August: Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
14 September: Bilbao, Spain
Visit Mido here.
