Mido Multicenterchrono Ref. 220 - Silver Dial Unpolished

Mido is a Swiss manufacturer founded in 1918 and built their brand largely on technical innovation with an emphasis on design. Sound great, right?

Right.

Lesser-known in the greater watch community, Mido does enjoy a cult-following with a handful of models at the center of vintage Mido collecting. The piece that we have here, a Multicenterchrono, is one of those models.

Introduced in 1941, the Multicenterchrono was Mido's way of improving legibility on the traditional chronograph, which [typically] featured two or three subsidiary registers on the dial. At this time, most chronographs with a few exceptions featured 34-36mm case sizes with even smaller dial that would often seem cluttered — particularly dials with multiple scales. Mido cleverly utilized their own modified version of a Valjoux Cal VZ manual-winding movement to remove the need for subsidiary registers, and relocate both the chronographs minute and seconds hands to the center post and dispense with the running seconds hand all together. The result, as the name of the model suggests, was a highly legible chronograph with a wide open layout.

Whats more is that, like the high-grade movement inside, Mido chose to use a water-resistant case from the famed case-maker François Borgel. During this era, 'FB' cases were also being used by premiere watch brands, most notably Movado and Patek Philippe. Coming in at 35mm in diameter, the case features the characteristic 'faceted' lug design with a screw-down caseback. Even the pushers are what are know as 'Tasti Tondi' pushers, with gorgeous 'fluting' on the topsides. Additionally, this piece retains its correct "Mido"-signed 'domed' crown.

Inside the case, a few dial variants are known, with the example that we have here fitted with a multi-tone silver unit with Radium luminous indices, a chapter ring, and both tachymeter and telemeter scales — all laid out in a digestible, clean way. The dial itself exhibits a light and largely even patina from age and remains very strong thanks to its water-resistant case. The luminous material is all even in color and matches the lume within the blued-steel 'kite' handset nicely. When the chronograph is running, the hands move in such a way that the appearance resembles that of a split-seconds-chronograph. Pretty neat if you ask us.

This then, is the kind of piece that really excited us. Manually-wound, objectively rare, historically significant, and in excellent overall condition... 

... and we're confident we're not the only ones who feel this way.