Mido Ocean Star Tribute: A stellar 1960s inspired dive watch

Over the past couple of months, Mido seems to be on a bit of a winning streak with the new additions to their collection. Case in point is this dressy Multifort Patrimony that combines stellar vintage vibes with an affordable price tag. And it seems that their streak is not quite ready to end with another vintage-inspired beauty. This time, they go with the tried-and-tested 1960s inspired dive watch, with the new Mido Ocean Star Tribute.

 

Although you won’t automatically think ‘dive watch’ with the Mido brand, it turns out they do have quite a storied history with underwater watches. This Ocean Star Tribute was made in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of the Ocean Star collection. But even before the first Ocean Star was created in 1944, Mido had already developed the Aquadura system that involved a cork crown gasket to ensure that their wristwatches could be completely water-resistant. Then, building on this benchmark they even created the Superwatertest, a device designed to check the water-resistance of its watches which was used in the 1950s.

With all this dive watch heritage, it comes as no surprise that all Ocean Star watches since the 2000s have been water-resistant to at least 20 bar or 200m. And that includes this brand new Mido Ocean Star Tribute. The 41.5mm case is made from 316L stainless steel with a bezel offering an aluminium insert. On top of that, it’s quite surprising that for the MSRP of MYR 4,180 they can offer a boxed sapphire crystal, that is usually quite costly to manufacture, thus prompting some brands to use plexiglass or mineral glass. Completing this 1960s look, the Mido Ocean Star Tribute also comes in an engineer style bracelet, also in 316L stainless steel and it even has a diving extension on its folding clasp.

Powering this vintage-inspired piece is the modern Automatic Mido Calibre 80 movement and even though the caseback is a solid one, the movement Mido chose to go with is the Finely decorated Elaboré-grade movement, and the oscillating weight comes adorned with the Geneva stripes.

Case: 316L stainless steel
Case size: 40.5mm
Crystal: Boxed sapphire
Movement: Automatic Mido Calibre 80 (ETA C07.621 base)
Water Resistance: 200m
Price: MYR 4,180