The Handsome Mido Baroncelli Chronograph Moonphase

Mido Watches can look back at over a century of watchmaking, as it was founded by Mr Georges Schaeren in 1918. Based in Le Locle and part of the Swatch Group since 1985, Mido has a broad spectrum of watches on offer, ranging from stylish time-only watches to sporty and robust divers and GMT watches. In terms of style, Mido isn’t shy about bringing something contemporary to the table, like the All Dial, but also honours its history through watches like the cool Ocean Star Decompression Timer. The Baroncelli collection is another fine example of a longstanding range of sleek and sensible watches, now expanded with the rather handsome and very well-equipped Baroncelli Chronograph Moonphase.

The polished 42mm stainless steel case looks rather nice and balanced, although no height is specified. The lug-to-lug size of 50.19mm does mean it is on the larger side of the spectrum. The stepped bezel visually enlarges the dial, but more on that in a bit. The right-hand side of the case has a simple yet effective knurled crown flanked by a pair of oval chronograph pushers. Both sides of the watch are fitted with a sapphire crystal, as expected. The only thing that looks to be a slight letdown is the water resistance of 30 meters. Surely it shouldn’t be that much of a stretch to up this to 50 or even 100 meters.

The dial is made up of multiple levels finished in a sunray brushed blue tone. The subdials at 6, 9 and 12 o’clock slightly differ in colour, which adds a nice touch. The outer, most upper level is designated to the pointer date indication, with a stylish pointer with a crescent moon tip. One step in and down comes the ring for the applied and polished hour indices, with printed minute markings in between. This also partly makes way for the three subdials, all finished with circular grooves and a broad silver outline. The bottom subdial is for the chronograph 12-hour counter and the moonphase. The subdial at 9′ shows you the running seconds and the 24-hour time. Finally, on top, there’s the subdial for the chronograph 30-minute counter, with apertures for the day of the week and the month. All hands are silver and polished, with the hour and minute hands being faceted.

Visible under the sapphire crystal caseback is the Mido Calibre 60 automatic movement, based on the ETA A05.221. This movement shows not only the hours, minutes and small seconds but also chronograph hours, minutes and seconds as well as a complete calendar display. It runs at a rate of 28,800vph and has an anti-magnetic Nivachron hairspring. When fully wound by the central rotor, the nicely decorated movement (an elaboré grade with blued screws, perlage and Côtes de Genève) holds up to 60 hours of autonomy.

The Mido Baroncelli Chronograph Moonphase is fitted with a textured blue rubber strap that has a curved end with quick-release push pins and a stainless steel pin buckle. To our knowledge, it is not a limited edition and has a sticker price of EUR 2,800. All in all, it looks to be a very dashing addition to Mido’s elegant Barconelli collection, with very decent specs and dimensions that remain rather wearable.

For more information, please visit MidoWatches.com.