Intro

If you had asked me years ago where Mido’s design was heading, I would have given the wrong answer. The Multifort collection, a best seller before the contemporary Ocean Star hit the stores, was a pillar in style and content unless the brand introduced many variations to overhaul it inside and out. When we thought the makeover would stop with the square-shaped Multifort TV, a new design broke cover with the unexpected Multifort 8 Two Crowns.

Octagons are anywhere

The octagon has recently become very popular in watchmaking. Mido is not the first brand to revive it in the business; it won’t be the last. As watch experts, we cannot avoid turning our heads and minds to the legendary Royal Oak by Audemars Piguet, a statement piece. Can we, therefore, describe all the newcomers as “Homage watches”? We can’t since the octagon has shaped architecture for centuries thanks to the well-known golden ratio between chord and arc when inscribed in a circumference.

We could discuss why Mido opted for this geometry. Still, I am interested in investigating why the brand decided to add a new family of watches under the Multifort collection’s umbrella and what they achieved. The 8 Two Crowns marks a considerable step forward for Mido and offers a new perspective on the direction of the design.

How is an 8 Two Crowns made?

Two Crowns thus revolutionizes the Mido design as we have known it for decades; forget the round shapes you were used to. It’s hard to confirm that it epitomizes Mido 2.0, but in the flesh, we can reaffirm that the case and bracelet design make for the most refined Multifort ever.

Looking at its case, an edgy style has taken over. Any ordinary Mido watch showcases soft lines, as did the Multifort TV. Still, the TV laid its foundations on models from the archives.

The shapes of 8 Two Crowns are edgy and intricate. The bracelet has three links, but the mid-links have a sharp line running through them. From the eight facets’ polished surface to the edges on the mid-links, the style alternates with sharp lines, either polished or brushed. Scrolling through the whole Multifort collection, you’ll discover the collection’s main takeout: the Two Crowns is the thinnest 100-meter-rated sports watch in the collection.

A golden size

On paper, it measures less than the canonical 10.0 mm in thickness. Precisely, the 40.0 by 38.4 millimeters stop at an excellent 9.5 mm. Here is Mido’s take on the popular sports watch in steel. Two crowns (one for the inner rotating bezel) mean it is a recreational diving watch, loaded with features to make it a do-anything and go-anywhere watch.

Also, a double screwed-down crown on a 9.5 mm thick watch is a winner, while the dial’s layout helps further reduce the glass-to-dial gap, highlighting that ultra-thin vibe. Designers adopted the calibre 72 to make it happen, introduced with the equally slim Mido Ocean Star 39. This proves the brand developed a new, slimmer mechanical movement to power their next generation of thinnest sports watches.

Calibre 72

Seventy-two hours of power reserve are available on the 4 Hertz running calibre equipped with a Nivachron™ hairspring, widely used on most ETA calibres powering the Group’s “entry-level” brands. The steel bracelet adopts a butterfly folding clasp with no micro-adjustment, but you can swap it with a rubber strap on a pin buckle unless you opt for the blue model.

Two tiny pins on each side allow you to exchange them quickly. The dial options include two steel models, one with a black dial and the other with a grey one, whose main difference is a black PVD coating on the crowns.

Finally, Mido added the blue variant cited above, with a matching blue rubber strap, a pin buckle, and blue PVD-treated crowns. Hence, three OEM options are provided, and you can build a fourth one by replacing the blue strap with the bracelet. Slimming down the case also slims the weight: the watch weighs 156 grams in steel-on-steel and 92 grams on a rubber strap.

Final thoughts

Mido has officially joined the club of brands offering a slim 100-meter sports watch with an integrated bracelet. The above was the brand’s main project’s goal. The second lists under the voice “perceived quality”. Inside and out, primarily, a Multifort 8 Two Crowns outperforms any other Multifort on display, and the new design works as the process enabler.

Mido has opened a new chapter. While we won’t know whether this project will mark the future models’ language, the lack of “family feeling” suggests that Mido embarked on a new journey, at least across the Multifort collection.

Still, I do not understand some of the options available at launch. For instance, what if I had to adopt a rubber strap on the grey variant? What colour can Mido provide? Here is where Mido should speed up the range and accessories extensions.

Finally, I would have gone for a closed case back; you won’t buy such a priced watch to admire its movement. Whatever its performance, the available movements in this price range are attractive. This applies to all the brands in the 1k euro competitive scenario, not just Mido and their 8 Two Crowns. A Multifort 8 Two Crowns retail price starts at 1,190 euros and stops at 1,220 euros, the difference so negligible that opting for the bracelet is a no-brainer.

(Photo credit: Horbiter®)

Giovanni Maria Di Biase @Horbiter®