The Mido M0056143605122 Multifort is a entry-level luxury Swiss watch from a relatively unknown brand. It’s packed with features, looks amazing, and has the high-quality parts needed to justify its price tag.
Quality Movement
The Mido 1320 caliber movement that powers this automatic watch has 25 jewels and is based on the ETA Valjoux 7750. The Valjoux is somewhat the standard for chronographs because it’s powerful enough to run both the dial and all of the subdials, so it’s perfectly suited for this Mido. It’s also powerful enough to have a power reserve of 42 hours, so you can leave it off for a day or two without worrying about it winding down. And as a nice detail, the Côtes de Genève can be seen on the rotor through the exhibition window.
Also noteworthy about this movement is the double shock protection from the Incabloc and Nivacourbe systems that protect the delicate parts of the movement. The Nivacourbe is a treatment of the springs that’s patented by ETA. If there is a shock to the watch, the spring will be prevented from being damaged by the patented heat treatment of the end of the spring. The Incabloc is a high-end shock protection system found only in the highest two grades of ETA movements.
Multifort Design
The design of the Mido Multifort is definitely not subtle with orange accents popping against the all black dial, stationary bezel, and case. The case and bezel are actually stainless steel and get their black color from PVC treatment. The round case is 44mm in diameter and 14.5mm thick, which is definitely on the large side and might not be suitable for those with smaller wrists. Thanks to the large size, there are a lot of things that are packed onto the dial, but not so many that any one of them is hard to read. It can also be easily read from any angle because both sides of the sapphire crystal have an anti-reflective treatment.
On the dial, the orange hour markers on the main part are a combination of stick and dot indicators. The black stick hour and minute hands have inlaid orange accents and the orange sweep second hand is long enough to touch the hour/minute indicators. The Côtes de Genève is carried over from the rotor and actually made slightly more interesting by the small diagonal lines creating texture within each stripe.
There is also some text in orange on the black dial. Directly above the day and date display at three o’clock it says “Mido” and directly below it reads “Multifort Automatic”. Also, very small at six o’clock, the Swiss heritage of this watch is proudly displayed.
Features
Just looking at the dial, it’s apparent that this watch has a lot of features. There are three subdials on this chronograph. All of them carry over the color scheme with their orange small seconds hands, they fit into the overall design of the watch. There’s a 30 minute counter at the twelve o’clock position, a smaller seconds hand at the nine o’clock position, and finally a twelve hour counter at the bottom in the six o’clock position. Additionally, not all chronographs include tachymeters, but this one does. You can use these numbers around the outer edge to calculate speed or distance.
In order to control the chronograph, there are two pushers on either side of the crown. The top one is at the two o’clock position and it starts and stops the timing functions. Below the crown at four o’clock is the button that resets the counters. While these buttons are pushers, the crown itself screws down in order to make the watch more water resistant. This one is rated water resistant up to 30 meters or 99 feet.
Another high-end feature on the Multifort is the luxurious black leather calfskin strap with contrasting orange stitching. This strap features a deployment buckle with a push-button clasp that would protect the watch from falling off of your wrist should it accidentally open up. This watch also comes with an additional leather strap that’s the reverse colors of the one that’s already on the watch, orange with black stitching. The strap can be changed easily, no tools needed, so if you like the bright orange look better you can switch it with the black one or you can just keep it as a backup.
Conclusion
The Mido Multifort is definitely a high-end watch with a stunning design and quality features. The price might seem high, but for everything that it offers, it’s a bargain, and a more well known brand could easily charge a lot more for it. It’d be perfect as a casual watch to add to your collection if you don’t shy away from bold and bright designs.
For more information visit the official Mido website here.
Hi Matthew,
I enjoyed reading your review and learning more about that 1320 movement. I recently received my Mido chronograph/chronometer back from the factory service center after noticing moisture inside of the crystal. While I didn’t like their poor customer support and how long it took to repair, it now runs flawlessly and keeping almost perfect time at about 1 second per day. Thank you. Bob