News · Mido

Mido's all-black Multifort 8 One Crown packs 80 hours and Nivachron into 9.9mm

Mido wants 920 francs for an 80-hour automatic with a Nivachron hairspring in a black PVD case 9.9mm thick.

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

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

The octagonal bezel and the flat integrated-sports-watch look have trickled all the way down the market by now. What separates one from another at the cheap end isn't the shape any more, it's which corners got cut to get there. Mido's new all-black Multifort 8 One Crown is 920 francs, VAT included, reference M055.507.37.051.00.

That buys an 80-hour automatic with a titanium-alloy hairspring and 100 metres of water resistance. It's better value than the spec list makes it look, and the size and the hairspring are why.

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

38.4mm long, 40mm wide

It isn't a plain 40mm watch. Mido lists it at 38.4mm long by 40mm wide on a 12mm lug width, short and broad, so it'll wear smaller than the headline number. Ninety grams all up.

Watches cut to this shape routinely land north of 11mm thick. Fitting 100 metres and an 80-hour movement inside 9.9mm takes real engineering.

The Caliber 80 and its Nivachron hairspring

The movement runs a Nivachron hairspring, the titanium-based alloy that shrugs off magnetism and knocks. Brands asking three times the money build whole campaigns around it. Mido fitted one and left it sitting on the spec sheet for whoever reads that far down.

The rest holds up. 316L steel under the PVD, a screw-down crown, a display back, sapphire with anti-reflective coating on both faces. The dial is black and ridged with horizontal grooves, the hands and indexes are lumed, and there's a date. Two-year warranty.

The bezel is the part that sells it, octagonal, each face switching between a brushed top and a polished angled flank, which is why the watch reads as more expensive than it is. Mido calls the design language Technometry. That's marketing, but the shape underneath is doing honest work.

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

Rubber, and nothing to trade up to

The strap is where it bites. Black rubber on a standard buckle, reference M603019827, no quick-release and no matching PVD bracelet. That's where the money was found, and on a watch built to look like an integrated-bracelet piece it's the omission you'll keep noticing. A bracelet would transform it, and would presumably push the price somewhere less interesting.

That 920 is a Swiss figure, by the way. Mido hasn't put an Australian one next to it yet.

920 francs against a quartz diver and a Miyota GMT

For a sense of the neighbourhood 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 asks roughly the same as the Trafford, skips the GMT, and hands back a Swiss automatic that runs for 80 hours, an antimagnetic hairspring and a case under 10mm.

Put like that it looks strong, and it also explains the strap. Something had to give at this price, and Mido gave up the part you can swap for a hundred francs rather than the part you can't swap at all.

The 100 metres does real work, too. Ten bar and a screw-down crown covers swimming without a second thought, which isn't always true of watches shaped like this one.