Teddy Baldassarre
Mido Ocean Star: A Complete Guide To The Historic Dive Watch
Mido is not one of the more widely familiar watchmakers in North America - though its watches have enjoyed a longstanding popularity south of the border, in Latin America - despite the fact that the brand, now owned by Swatch Group, has been around for a long time. It was founded on November 11, 1918, the same date of the armistice that ended World War I, by watchmaker Georges G. Schaeren (below) in the Swiss town of Biel-Bienne. Its name comes from the Spanish phrase Yo Mido, meaning “I Measure,” which may or may not indicate that Schaeren had always intended his products to appeal to a large Spanish-speaking audience. What is indisputable is that the Mido brand contributed some significant innovations to watchmaking in the 20th Century, few of which are often acknowledged. The company came up with one of the first solutions to waterproofing watch cases in 1930, developing a sealing system (below) that installed a watertight gasket made of cork between the crown and the case; Mido later named this invention “Aquadura.” The Mido Multifort, still produced today, debuted in 1934 and became the first antimagnetic watch with automatic winding. In 1945, Mido unveiled the Multi-CenterChrono, the first chronograph watch with a central display for the elapsed time, and in 1954 developed the Powerwind automatic winding system that increased efficiency by reducing the number of parts in the mechanism. Of all these milestones, it was the Aquadura waterproofing technolog...
