Mido is something of a lovable oddball within the contemporary watchmaking world. One look at its modern catalog shows that it’s a brand unafraid to experiment with color and form, prepared to carry on a certain (often retro) quirkiness to its full expression. Today, Mido might’ve just pushed that penchant for the unexpected to its most extreme. Taking the form of a 999-piece limited edition, the brand unveils its latest rendition of its funky Multifort TV Big Date, complete with a wildly textured dial harkening to the familiar multicolored “Off-Air” graphic displayed on the Televisions of yesteryear.
We should probably begin with the real star of the show – that funky textured dial. To make its graphic, TV screen-like appearance even more dynamic, the brand has made the stylistic choice to bypass the easy route – which would simply be printing a flat dial with a graphic – in favor of the road less traveled. This particular route involves a smattering of multicolored, four-faceted pyramid structures in various sizes, creating an illusion of movement that captures the spirit of the retro, tuning-screen motif.
Despite all the busyness of the colors and textures, the dial remains quite legible. The hours are told by a combination of circular pips and trapezoidal indices, all of which are filled with Super-LumiNova to assist in any nighttime reading endeavors. Additionally, a 60-minute scale has been printed along the rehaut. As the name suggests, the oversized (i.e. Big) date window rests front and center at 12 o’clock. You could say that this detail resists the role of the forgotten guest star that date windows often play, and instead, is cast as a main character by design.
For those already familiar with the design of Mido’s Multifort TV Big Date, S01E01 doesn’t stray far from its established form – no need to fix what ain’t broke, you might say. Measuring 40 x 39.2mm, the three-part case is crafted from stainless steel mixing both satin-finished and polished surfaces and is paired with an equally satin-finished stainless steel bracelet
Within the S01E01 lies the Mido automatic Caliber 80, which takes the ETA C07.651 movement as its base. This automatic movement has an impressive power reserve of 80 hours, runs on 25 jewels, features a Nivachron balance spring to boost its anti-magnetism, and is equipped with an oscillating weight with MIDO’s logo as well as the Côtes de Genève decoration, and an engraving of each model’s unique serial number out of 999. And, thanks to the sapphire crystal caseback, you are free to observe the Mido automatic Caliber 80 in action, if you so wish.
As a special part of this limited edition, Multifort TV Big Date S01E01 ships in a collectors box, and is accompanied by two additional rubber straps in yellow and turquoise blue. As I’ve previously mentioned, you can now get this limited edition timepiece from MIDO in the Hodinkee Shop.