BY DHANANJAY PATHAK
Mido is a mid-tier Swatch group brand that is known for making watches which are well put together, have interesting technical specifications and more than anything else offer a nice bang for the buck. Celebrating their 100th anniversary the brand has been on a roll this year and release quite a few intriguing watches this year such as the vintage-inspired Mido Mutifort Datometer and the dapper looking Mido commander shade. Their latest offering is the Ocean Star Diver 600 which as the name suggests is a dive watch that is water resistant to a depth of 600 meters, is powered by a COSC certified movement and comes in at well below the 2000$ price point.
The ocean star line of watches from Mido are robust looking watches which have been designed to handle anything and everything that comes their way, and the new Ocean Star diver 600 not only keeps these design ethos intact but pushes them a step further. The stainless steel case on this watch is 43.5 mm wide by 14.05 mm thick giving it a masculine look, and while the dimensions are certainly on the larger side of things, one should not forget that we are talking about a serious dive watch here. Water resistance is rated at a whopping 600 meters, which is frankly speaking much more than what is needed by even the most serious divers out there, but it certainly exhibits the technical capabilities of this beast and inspires a lot of confidence should you wish you explore the depths of the sea wearing this watch. There is a 60minute dive time bezel on top of the case that features a ceramic bezel insert with large Arabic numerals that have been filled with a special luminous material called Super-Luminova Grade X which is meant to last longer than standard Super-Luminova. Mido has also gone ahead and thrown in few extra such as an auto-release helium escape valve if the need arises.
The dial on the Mido Ocean Star Diver 600 remains quite familiar to the ones found on some previously released Ocean star models, with a few minor yet important changes. The hour markers are these big lume filled rectangles for the most part, with the exception of joined square blocks at 12, 6 and triangles at 3 and 9. The handset instead of being semi skeletonized has now been fully filled with luminous paint, which makes it look a lot beefier than before and would also translate to better low light visibility. Previous gen ocean star models featured a day/date complication, which though being useful, did a look a little out of place on a dive watch. Thankfully this has been taken care of to a certain extent in the Mido Ocean Star 600 by replacing the day/date complication with just a date, making the dial look much cleaner. There are 2 different dial colors to choose from: a petrol blue sunburst which is accompanied by a stainless steel case and metal bracelet, and a black dial which is paired with a DLC case and a black rubber strap.
Let us now have a look at what makes the Mido Ocean Star Diver 600 really special, which is, the Caliber 80 Si. Based upon the ETA C07.821 this movement presents a host of advancements in the form of a Silicon balance spring, an ELINFLEX mainspring and offers a massive power reserve of 80 hours beating at a frequency of 3Hz. But the icing on the cake here has to be the COSC certification which would ensure that this watch would maintain an accuracy within -4 to +6 seconds of variation per day. The movement has been decorated using blued screws and Côtes de Genève, but Mido has chosen to keep it hidden beneath a closed case back which has a deeply stamped starfish motif on it.
The Mido Ocean Star Diver 600 is handsome looking diver which has been packed to gills to please the dive watch enthusiasts out there. Both stainless steel and DLC version of the watch is priced at $1700 and the watch is available to purchase on Mido’s website. Visit Mido here.
