Mido Commander Gent’s Leather & Chronograph

Mido has been making the Commander line since 1959, which makes this collection over 50 years old. There are very few brands with successful collections that have spanned five decades. Apart from the Navitimer from Breitling, the Mido Commander must be the second oldest chronograph still in production.

The Mido Commander Gent’s comes in two versions a three hand edition and a chronograph version. These timepieces are crafted from stainless steel, which has been coated with PVD rose gold. PVD or Phosphor Vapor Deposition is a cutting edge technology where the rose gold is bonded to the steel at the atomic level resulting in absolutely zero risk of the rose gold fading or chipping with wear and tear. PVD has also been known to strengthen the steel, thus reducing the chance of minor scratching.

The cases of the Leather and Chronograph from the Commander series come with dimensions of 40mm and 42.5mm respectively. These watches use the traditional main crown and two push piece chronograph set up to adjust the time and date and to activate the chronograph. The Commander Gent’s Leather and Chronograph models are both fitted with black leather straps secured with tang type buckles made with rose gold PVD stainless steel.

The dials of both models are similar, with the Leather model in anthracite, and the chrono version with a white dial and anthracite subdials. The hands and indexes marking the hours are generously coated with lume for legibility of the time at night. There is a day and date aperture at the 3 o’clock position.

These models are powered by a self-winding mechanical movement made entirely in Switzerland. The movements are based on the Valjoux 7750 and ETA 2836-2 for the chrono and non-chrono editions respectively. . The Leather has a minimum power reserve of 38 hours while the Chronograph features 48 hours. Each model is protected against shocks by an Incabloc system.