23 September 2017 | MIDO , 30 minutes on the wrist , Baselworld 2017

“Audere est facere” is a famous Latin quote that many organizations, brands and even soccer teams like the Tottenham football club (which chose the quote as a motivational motto for the team) have borrowed from the Latin language. MIDO didn’t ever adopt this quote but it rather made it into an inspirational principle; constantly looking for creative ideas make the manufacturer one of the most active brands within the Swatch Group and also a potential competitor for its very own “cousins” (from the point of view of the positioning and the originality of its offer).
The MIDO Multifort continues to be both the reference collection for the brand and, from this year onwards, a small lab for the manufacturer because the MIDO Multifort Escape is the perfect example of a new Multifort family of time only watches that takes inspiration from the aeronautical and the exploration world. The collection also made available to a vast clientele one of the most appreciated trends of the moment among mechanical timepieces (following the trend of bronze): the antique-like effect of the case and the crown achieved through a PVD-treatment. This type of coating used to be utilized to simply blacken the case and thus protect it as much as possible from shocks and scratches, but the treatment has evolved over the last years to now become a true customization tool.
Thanks to this treatment, the MIDO Multifort Escape (a three-hands watch with date measuring 44mm in diameter) fully turned into a true Pilot's Watch with a pedigree. Keep in mind that in 1947, Milton Reynolds beat the world record of flying around the world while wearing a Multifort! The story fuelled the creativity of the brand's designers, who came up with an exceptionally readable dial with large Arabic numbers filled with SuperLuminova contrasting with the dial sporting the classic Côtes de Généve motif, a sufficiently small date window at 6 o’clock and crafted in four color variations.
It is quite a refined product completed with MIDO’s exclusive ETA 2.0 mechanics used by other brands belonging to the same group too. Users can count on 80 hours of maximum power-reserve (an eternity for a watch that you use with the same frequency with which you drive your car every day) and product specifications that are intended for more and more evolved customers for whom this specific detail combined with the use of the Nivaflex mainspring, are synonymous with technical refinement and also represent a product value that stands out from the mass and elevate the MIDO Multifort Escape’s positioning and perception. Product accessibility does not rhyme with renunciation but rather with relaunching and this seems to be the message that MIDO wants to relay.
All the MIDO Multifort Escape timepieces retail at a price of 810€; quite a fantastic retail price and an incredible undercutting if compared to the average market retail price. The content has been dramatically relaunched and this is quite visible in the finishing (like, for instance, on the caliber that can be seen through the case-back). The motto “accessibility equals cheap” is no longer true and if you were to ask me which one of the three versions I would go for, I would reply to you with no hesitation; the MIDO Multifort Escape with the orange "chemin de fer" minute ring. In my opinion, this is MIDO’s true and only color.

(Photo credit: Horbiter's proprietary photo-shooting)

Gaetano C @Horbiter®

@Gaetano Cimmino

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