Mido Release Ocean Star 39mm to Celebrate Dive Collection’s 80th Anniversary

2024 marks the 80th anniversary of the Mido Ocean Star and to celebrate this significant milestone, they’ve launched a brand new model. It’s the Mido Ocean Star 39mm, presenting the collection at a new, slimmer sizing for the first time. Plus it has a really cool dial inspired by the waves of sand on the seabed – sounds familiar.

Starting with the case, it really is just a downsized version of the Ocean Star at 39mm. Which means it has sloping lugs, a round design and contrasting brushed and polished surfaces. The biggest difference compared to its larger cousins is the absence of any crown guards, which helps to further emphasise the reduced size as it’s less bulky on the crown-side flank. It also maintains a water resistance rating of 200m, which is in line with rest of the modern collection. It would be nice to see that bumped to 300m but 200m is broadly acceptable at this price point.

A key part of the Mido Ocean Star 39mm is obviously the dial because it looks great. The undulating pattern of waves is like and Omega Seamaster Diver 300m on steroids, with each of the waves being wider and with more verticality. There are four colours available: black-blue gradient, black-grey gradient, champagne and black. Of note, the black edition’s case has a black PVD coating to match.

Of the four colourways, the black-blue gradient is the one that immediately stands out. It’s very striking although it does feel like the gradient is somewhat upside down – typically dive watches with gradients like this have blue at the top of the dial, getting darker further down to mirror the descent into the depths. An equally cool edition is the full black as it’s very bold and is the only one with orange lume on the hour markers and hands.

Beneath the wavy dial, the Mido Ocean Star 39mm houses the Mido automatic calibre 72 (base ETA A31.111). It’s a really solid movement with a 72-hour power reserve and Nivachron balance spring. Protecting the calibre is a solid steel caseback decorated with the Ocean Star’s traditional mascot, the five-point starfish.

This fun collection of dive watches is available at £990 for the plain steel editions and £1,300 for the black PVD version. Given the quality of the movement and the patterned dials I think that’s solid value. Better value than a fair few Seikos and that’s saying something.

More details at Mido.

​Oracle Time 

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