This chronograph by Mido is interesting, it has something of the IWC looks with its 316L stainless steel case, satin-finish sunray blue dial with touches of red on hands and subdials, circular guilloand the narrow bezel. The chronograph dial design doesn’t mess about with things like quarter-seconds or fifths of seconds, but in real life, who really needs fractions of seconds? Heck, we’re talking about boiled eggs and things like that, and in any case, human reaction times and the mechanical delay in the process add up to about half a second. It’s a practical watch, with day and date windows; hour and minute hands, and the hour markers, have a SuperLuminova coating for night-time legibility. The case is 42.5 mm in diameter, water-resistant to 5 bar pressure, 50 metres depth, and it is mounted on a steel bracelet. The Commander has been around since 1959, but I think that this is its most successful design yet. I like the way in which the relatively open. unstructured appearance of the dial indications contrasts with the compact block formed by the Mido logo, the day and date, and the name of the watch.
Movement
The movement can be seen through the transparent caseback, and it is decorated with blued screws, circular grained bridges, and an oscillating weight with Côtes de Genève and the Mido logo. It is called the Mido Caliber 60, made by Swatch Group company ETA as the ETA A05H21, running at 28,800 vph (4 Hertz) and providing about 60 hours power reserve. All adjustments to time and date are made using the crown: first position for winding, second position for changing day (anticlockwise) and date (clockwise), third position for setting time with stop-time function – the balance stops running when the crown is pulled out to the time-setting position.
Reference and price
The Mido Commander Chronograph Caliber 60 is reference M016.414.11.041.00, price about €1,780.
Two other versions of this model are available, with silver dial, reference M016.414.16.051.00, and with black dial and black leather strap, reference M016.414.16.051.00.
