BY DHANANJAY PATHAK
After recently revisiting its heritage roots with the new funky and colorful Mido Ocean Star Decompression Timer 1962, Mido is back again, but this time with a more modern offering. The new Mido Ocean star GMT watches add the useful functionality of tracking an extra time zone to a rugged and capable tool watch.
Mido’s Ocean Star collection comprises solidly built, feature-packed “go anywhere do anything” dive watches, and these new GMT’s are no different. Featuring a 44mm stainless steel case, a unidirectional dive time bezel, 200 meters of water resistance, and driven by a proven automatic movement, these watches are well equipped to handle those underwater trips. However, what makes them special is their ability to track a second time zone.
To track the additional timezone, the face of the watch features a 24-hour chapter ring that can be read using the triangle tipped GMT hand that has also been filled with luminous paint for low light visibility. Furthermore, to add a nice pop of color to the dial, the 24-hour markings along with the tip of the second’s hand and the GMT hand has been presented in blue or orange on the all-steel variants. The two-tone variant, on the contrary, uses Rose gold hands to brighten things up. Apart from this, the rest of the layout remains familiar to existing Ocean Star models. You get a black dial with applied lume filled hour markers, a date window at 3, and semi-skeletonized hour and minute hands.
Under the hood of these new watches ticks a modified version of Mido’s Caliber 80, that can handle the GMT function. This is an automatic movement that uses the ETA C07.661 as its base, operates at a frequency of 3Hz, and offers a healthy autonomy of around 80 hours. The movement has been nicely decorated using Geneva stripes on the rotor, blued screws, and circular graining on the bridges. Sadly though, none of this can be enjoyed as the movement has been hidden underneath a closed case back that has been nicely engraved with GMT indications.
The new Mido Ocean Star GMT watches are available in three distinctive variations. The blue bezel model comes attached to a blue textile strap and retails for EUR 1,150; the black bezel version with orange accents comes with a steel bracelet and retails for EUR 1,210; and finally, the two-tone model comes with a two-tone bracelet and retails for EUR 1,340.
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