The Return of a Classic: The New Multifort Powerwind Chronometer from Mido

Whenever I check to see what Mido watches are up to, I always find myself coming back to its vintage-inspired Multifort Patrimony models. With their mid-century styling, glass-box sapphire crystal, and retro Mido logo – not to mention very competitive price point – the time-and-date Multifort Patrimony and Multifort Patrimony Chronograph are a particularly well-executed pair of throwback watches.

So when I heard that Mido had been mining its Multifort archive once again, my ears perked up. What could the Swatch Group brand have in store for us this time? A baller, it turns out: The new limited-edition Multifort Powerwind.

Founded by Georges G. Schaeren in Solothurn in 1918, Mido spent the first decade and a half of its existence making quite quirky, design-centric tickers. It wasn’t until the brand launched the Multifort in 1934 and the Multifort Automatic a year later that it began to be regarded as a serious watchmaker (thanks to the latter’s self-winding mechanism and waterproof, antimagnetic, impact-resistant qualities).
 

Fast forward two decades, and in 1954 Mido, bolstered its watchmaking credentials further when it brought out the Powerwind automatic movement, developed in collaboration with A. Schild SA. According to Mido, it was the brand’s most precise movement at the time.

What’s more is that it boasted exceptional reliability. Its self-winding mechanism featured as few as seven components – more than half the previous amount – making it less susceptible to faults and easier to service, representing a boon for both owners and Mido’s after-sales department.

Aesthetically, the new Mido Multifort Powerwind doesn’t seem to take design cues from one specific classic Powerwind reference. Rather, its functions, dial, case, crystal, and bracelet all contain nods to a range of Multifort Powerwinds of yesteryear.

The most eye-catching element has to be the domed, sun-brushed dial. Its intense shade of midnight blue really sets off the delta-shaped applied indices and Alpha hour and minute hands that have all been gilded and faceted.
 

Balancing out the top and bottom of the dial are the embossed Mido Multifort and Powerwind logos, both reproduced in the same typefaces used back in the day. And to add to the retro feel, Mido has once again deployed a glass-box style sapphire crystal to cover the sumptuous dial.

But in a rare touch of modernity, the hour and minute hands, quarter-hour indices, peripheral hour dots, and day-date aperture at 3 o’clock all feature white Super-LumiNova for enhanced legibility.
 

Priced very reasonably at $1,340, the new Multifort Powerwind is available as a numbered 1,954-piece limited edition, a numerical tribute to the 1954 original. Each watch is delivered in a special presentation box accompanied by the watch’s COSC certificate.
 

For more information, please visit the Mido website.

(Photography by Pierre Vogel)