I was among the first people to claim that the brand Mido is a “right” brand that came out at the “right” time. It might not be the nicest adjective to use and, to be honest, it sounds quite generic too but only on the outside. In Italian, this adjective describes perfectly well those instances where a brand features a series of characteristics that are so well mixed together and so well-thought out that they instantly transform a brand into an interesting competitor.
It generally takes time to fully understand what a brand is about, but over one year ago, I fell in love for example with the Mido All Dial Special Edition and an elegant style that somehow resembles the geometry of the Bauhaus style despite its vivid colours and the orange shade that is one of Mido’s trademarks.
It’s nice to share with you the news that the brand chose Horbiter® as the web channel to launch one of its new timepieces on to the Italian market, better to say; it chose Horbiter® as the web-based magazine dedicated to the world of watches to tell us about the brand’s entry to our domestic market of the new Mido Multifort Chronograph Adventure.
This time we haven’t come up with one live article only but we have gone one step further and created our first video. We have taken the Mido Multifort Chronograph Adventure to one of Milan’s symbolic places and the flagship of modern Italian design; Milan is a place where many important events take place every year and where an exceptional collection of private and public artifacts that can’t be found nowhere else either in Italy or in Europe is hosted.
As I said in the opening of the video, the Mido Multifort is Mido’s quintessence; it is the model that best summarizes its history and the first timepiece with an automatic movement ever crafted by the manufacturer. The watch’s bond with the world of design can be found in the style of the brand’s timepieces, even more than in the brand’s vision itself.
No other place in Milan could represent the city’s modernity than the City–Life complex; a vision of future and avant-garde design in one of the most important residential neighbourhoods in the city.
Extremely modern materials, domotics and a geometric style seem to be the ideal frame to a timepiece and a brand that used typical elements of classic Swiss watch-making for its own sake and more like design elements rather than decoration features.
I believe that the Côtes de Genève motif is the most widespread and widely-known type of decoration in the world of watch-making, it can be crafted in different manners but nobody ever thought about using it in different areas than those of the movement.
On the Mido Multifort Chronograph Adventure, that particular decoration was applied to the dial through a vertical motif that sticks to the timepiece’s geometry while creating, at the same time, a special effect that changes according to the angle the sun light hits the watch and creates a geometric contrast with the two big circular counters; the first counter is for the continuous seconds while the second counter is for the 30–chrono–minutes.
Is this a reference to the past? I wouldn’t say so, despite the fact that the two-counter-layout is getting more and more popular by the day. Mido didn’t aim at creating the copy of a racing chronograph from the 60s and 70s but it rather used that specific motif to define its clear identity.
It is easier to say it than to actually do it but this timepiece sports no vintage features; it represents the opposite of this concept and it is the same idea that lies behind the choice to equip this watch with a Rally Strap – at first sight as the strap is not pierced -.
The strap ends with a triple folding clasp that only has one fault (maybe only on mine as it was a specimen), namely it opens easily on the shorter side – the one attached to the strap -.
The Mido Multifort Chronograph Adventure features an ample stainless steel case that underwent a PVD–treatment and measures 44mm; two characteristics that make it a masculine watch for everyday use and an item with a reliable sturdiness. Moreover, Mido did nothing to mitigate either the ample size of the case or the strength of the dial that is its most elaborated and easily recognizable feature.
This might be the reason why the manufacturer decided to minimize the size of the bezel on which is a tachymetric scale that goes up to 400km/hour, it is almost in the background if compared to the applied indexes and the big Arabic number 12, all of which were filled with Super-Luminova.
Sturdiness and precision are guaranteed by the caliber 60; an evolution of the so-called 77XX calibers that are the heirs of the ETA–Valjoux enhanced on many levels to create a caliber that was already famous for its reliability and its power reserve that has now gone up to 60 hours.
The retail price of the Mido Multifort Chronograph Adventure was wisely placed slightly below the psychological 1,800–euro–threshold; a retail price that can guarantee the purchase of a great chronograph that sports the touch and feel of a timepiece that is worth at least double the price and with neither “ifs” nor “buts”.
(Photo credit: Horbiter®)
Gaetano C @Horbiter®
