Seems this year might be the year of the see-through dial, in some form or fashion. Not that long ago we had the lovely sapphire hue coming from Christopher Ward (seen here), and now we’ve got Mido coming on hot with their take, in the form of the Mido Commander Gradient.
Rather than the sapphire that we saw used on the CW, here, the Mido Commander Gradient is making use of a piece of acrylic for the dial. So, where’s the gradient? Well, that’s how you have that dark outer ring near the indices. If you take a closer look at the date disc (which I still don’t like to be able to see, even here) you see the gradient kicking in (except for the date window “cutout” which is crisp and clear.
The Mido Commander Gradient follows the established Commander line design language, and brings along the Calibre 80 movement to the party. And I will say this – an 80-hour power reserve doesn’t sound impressive until you actually experience it. Perhaps if you’re a one- or two-watch person, it’s not helpful. But if you’re flipping around between different watches, that longer-lasting reserve (3+ days) is a treat.
While all of these photos show the Mido Commander Gradient with a PVD finish and on a black strap, there are a few different options. The most affordable is actually the steel finish with a bracelet ($920), then up to $960 for the model we’ve shown here (or in a gold-tone PVD), and topping out at the full PVD finish (even the bracelet) for $1,060. While I can’t say that this is my favorite Mido ever, I do like the smoked look to the dial, which gives the whole thing a sort of wheel-and-tire look, keeping the motoring dream on your wrist. midowatches.com
Watch Overview
- Brand & Model: Mido Commander Gradient
- Price: $920 (bracelet) / $960 (PVD on strap) / $1,060 (PVD on PVD bracelet)
- Who we think it might be for:
- Would I buy one for myself based on what I’ve seen?
- If I could make one design suggestion, it would be:
- What spoke to me the most about this watch:
Tech Specs from Mido
- Movement
- Automatic Mido Caliber 80 (ETA C07.611 base), 11????, ?25.60 mm, height: 4.74 mm, 25 jewels, 21,600 vph.
- Finely decorated Elabor?-grade movement, oscillating weight decorated with Geneva stripes and the Mido logo.
- Functions: HMSD.
- Adjusted on 3 different positions for high accuracy.
- Up to 80 hours of power reserve.
- Case
- Material:?Stainless steel with black PVD coating
- Diameter:?40.00 mm
- Between lugs:?21.00 mm
- Water-resistance:?5 bar (50 m / 165 ft)
- Crystal:?Sapphire crystal
- Case height:?10.84 mm
- Transparent caseback
- Strap
- Black fabric, orange stitching, stainless steel folding clasp with black PVD treatment.
- Dial
- Acrylic, transparent in the centre and increasingly opaque (gradated smoky effect), polished applied indexes with orange Super-LumiNova?, date aperture at 3 o?clock.
- Hands
- Flat diamond-cut hour and minute hands with orange Super-LumiNova? for enhanced legibility at night.
- Orange varnished seconds hand.
