Mido Watches: history, models and innovations

Mido was founded in 1918 by Georges Schaeren. The name Mido originated from the Spanish sentence "Yo Mido" ("I measure"). The eclectic Swiss watchmaker aimed at giving Mido the foothold of an innovative brand showcasing a sleek and timeless style. Many are the brands that claim today a connection between the watches and cars, but already in 1920, Mido used to design watches whose shape was inspired by a car's radiator grille. The carmakers that inspired Georges Schaeren were the most famous at the time, including Buick, Bugatti, Fiat, Ford, Hispano-Suiza.

The brand's mission

The brand's mission is and always has been to create sturdy self-winding wristwatches. The product's sturdiness goes hand in hand with innovation: Mido introduced the Aquadura sealing system, for example, by equipping the winding crown with a cork gasket, that turned its watches in the first waterproof watch. It was the year 1930. In 1934, Mido debuted a collection that soon became the brand's flagship collection, the Multifort. Again, Mido proved to be a breakthrough at the time: the Mido Multifort was the first-ever antimagnetic watch featuring an automatic, waterproof, and shockproof movement.

Technology and style in one go: in 1954, Mido introduced the Powerwind automatic winding system: it guaranteed increased power reserve along with enhanced reliability thanks to the reduction of the winding mechanism parts from 17 to 7, thus positively affecting after-sales costs too.

In 1959, the Mido Ocean Star first appeared; it is today a collection of diving watches, but back then, it was not. Despite this, the original Mido Ocean Star was one of the few watches featuring a single-piece case coupled to the Aquadura system, thus making the Mido Ocean Star watch a forerunner of modern diving watches.