Vintage Mido Watches?

A dab of posts having to do with Mido appear here on Omega Forum. Where does the Mido watch fall in the pecking order of brands? Were they considered on the "low-end of high-grade?" They'll never capture the imaginations of watch aficionados like any of several of the brands we know and love but the single example kept around here is a good, serviceable watch.

We've experienced low 70s afternoon temperatures here and had a fine day. By Monday morning it's suppose to be low 20s with snow and icing and a Monday high of 27F. Nothing like Texas weather. I took some late afternoon photos of it out-of-doors. They're amateurish but that's the way it is here. It looks better in person than in the photos.



I've used it for weekend casual when hanging around the house but not undertaking heavy chores and it also works for office wear with jeans for Friday casual. It comes off looking pretty good when worn with a belt and shoes to match the hue of the strap. I've never worn it more than about 2-3 consecutive days but it keeps excellent time over such a period. I don't frequently get it out but am always more impressed with it when it's worn than I'm prepared to be.


Would anyone be able to date this watch with any certainty?

Are there other Forum members who have vintage Midos? It would be nice to see what's out there in Forumland showing the brand in its different models and styles. Do the watchmakers among us have any thoughts about the brand?

They are, in my view, generally underrated and undervalued in the vintage collector communities. They made excellent watches through the '50s, often featuring really attractive dials, and housed in particularly good screw-back cases (much better than average). However, as they tended to be small by today's standards (i.e. 28-34mm), their values are generally relatively low outside of Asia (where there is strong demand).

There are also notable exceptions, such as the Multicenterchrono model. Here are a few of mine.

There are some real beauties to be had 😁

Love the hands!
Is that a dent or a reflection on the bezel at 09:30?

Just a reflection.

👍 I'll take that 34-35mm in a heartbeat! 🥰

Thank you cr – mighty kind of you to say.

Nice to see a breakdown of the excellent cal. 1300 movement! And it presents an opportunity to point out two interesting (to my mind, at least) nuances.

First, notice the size of the balance? BIG! Which, of course, means greater potential accuracy. And which also leads me to a subtle connection. The cal. 1300 is based on the Valjoux VZ caliber, which may sound familiar to some readers. Though designed as a chronograph caliber, the VZ was also used as a base for some of the finest hand-wind time only movements ever produced. They are best known to vintage Audemars Piguet collectors as cal. VZSS and (center-second) VZSSc. The same base was also used by Patek Philippe in their early (30mm) Observatory entrants as well as a few complicated models.

I own several AP versions, as well as two rare Gübelin examples. You should be able to see the close similarities between the above Mido and one of my Gübelin movements pictured below.

Regards,

Tony C.

You are welcome, and thank you! One of 200 produced.

Exposed springs?

How agricultural.




😉

That copper 2 tone is beautiful!