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What 920 francs buys you at Mido, and why it is more than it looks

An 80-hour automatic with a Nivachron hairspring, under 10mm thick, in black PVD.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 3 min read · 7 August 2026

Mido Multifort 8 One Crown in black PVD — Image: Mido

Nine hundred and twenty francs. That is Mido's recommended price, VAT included, for the new all-black Multifort 8 One Crown, reference M055.507.37.051.00. For that you get an 80-hour automatic with a titanium-alloy hairspring in a case under 10mm thick, which is a better deal than the early coverage let on, because the early coverage missed two things.

A 40mm watch that is 38.4mm long

The first is the size. This is not a plain 40mm watch. Mido lists it as 38.4mm long by 40mm wide, 9.9mm thick, with a 12mm lug width. It is a short, wide case, and it will wear smaller than the number in the headline.

The second is the hairspring. The Caliber 80 here runs Nivachron, the titanium-based alloy built to shrug off magnetism and knocks. Brands charging three times this make a feature of it. Mido has simply put it in and left it on the spec sheet for anyone who bothered to look.

The rest holds up. 316L steel under the PVD, 100 metres, screw-down crown, see-through back, sapphire with anti-reflective coating on both faces. Ninety grams on the wrist. The dial is black and ridged with horizontal grooves, lumed on the hands and indexes, with a date. Two-year warranty.

The see-through caseback of the Multifort 8, showing the Caliber 80 movement and its rotor — Caliber 80 behind the display back, with a Nivachron hairspring. Image: Mido

The bezel is octagonal, its faces alternating between a brushed top and a polished angled side, and it is the reason the watch looks like it costs more. Mido calls the whole design language Technometry, which is marketing, but the shape underneath it is honest enough.

Close-up of the Multifort 8 One Crown dial, black with horizontal grooves, inside a black octagonal bezel — The grooved dial and the octagonal bezel. Image: Mido

Where Mido saved the money

Now the catch. The strap is black rubber on a standard buckle, reference M603019827. Not a quick-release, not a matching PVD bracelet. That is where the money was saved, and on a watch built to look like an integrated-bracelet sports piece it is the omission you will notice. A bracelet would transform it and would presumably push the price somewhere less interesting.

Sub-10mm is the number to hold on to. Watches in this style routinely come in north of 11, and keeping 100 metres and an 80-hour movement inside 9.9mm takes actual engineering.

Australian pricing had not been published when we went to press.

What else 920 francs buys this week

For context on where 920 francs lands this week: ProTek's new Aggressor 4000 is 575 US dollars for a 45mm quartz diver, and Trafford's Touring GMT is 899 US dollars for a true GMT on a Miyota 9075 with a 42-hour reserve. The Mido gives up the GMT complication and asks for similar money, and hands back an 80-hour Swiss automatic with an antimagnetic hairspring and a sub-10mm case.

Put like that it looks strong. It also explains the strap. Something had to give at this price, and Mido chose the part you can replace for a hundred francs over the part you cannot replace at all.

The 100 metres is more than decorative too. Ten bar with a screw-down crown covers swimming without a second thought, which is not always true of watches shaped like this one.