The Mido brand is often overlooked but that’s harsh because this Swiss factory has a long history of making top quality watches. Fast forward to the 21st century, and they are trying to offer a mid-market, luxury product line. Little bit below Oris but above Tissot.

OK, you’re thinking Hamilton, Certina, Seiko and others have that under £1000 dive watch market pretty much covered. But the Ocean Star model, revamped for July 2022 with a new ceramic bezel, Swatch Powermatic 80 movement and 200m of resistance, is worth a look.

It retails at CAD$1475, which is about £925, which is affordable for lots of watch fans.

The steel case is 42.5mm wide and looks beautifully finished in the photos. Love the caseback engraving work too.

That said, the Longines Hydro-Conquest Auto has 300m of depth and retails at £1000 or so. It also has more resale potential come PX time than a Mido.

Then there’s the Tissot Seastar, which has a 43mm case, Powermatic 80 movement and you can find it online at about £500.

One detail that jars is the bare edges on the day/date window. It’s just a bit Ali Express Heimdallr and Mido need to do better on tiny details like that.

CAN ONE COMPANY MAKE THE SAME WATCH WITH FOUR BRAND NAMES?

There’s a place for mid-market watches, but it’s undeniably getting tough out there as people want super luxury AP/Rolex/Patek type celeb bling, or something  Swiss powered, durable and kinda homage.

There’s a reason why Seiko are continually price walking their watches upwards past the £500 mark; they don’t want to be seen as a mass market value level brand anymore. That job can be done by Lorus and Orient.

Swatch needs to learn from that and start to decide where it really wants Mido to be; Blancpain level, or Certina?

So Swatch has a hard choice with Mido – it has problems with other brands in its range too. But the fact is that having Mido, Hamilton, Tissot and Certina all competing for the same budget dive watch consumer makes no sense. Something has to give we reckon – and soon.

Either take Mido upmarket, or retire the brand and focus on Certina and Tissot as budget dive watch brands for the future.