A Quirky 1960s Dive Watch Just Got an Unexpected Dark Makeover

Is there such a thing as a blacked-out rainbow?

close up of mido rainbow dive watch dial

Published August 14, 2024

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Dive watches tend to follow the same general format embodied by the Rolex Submariner since the early 1950s. Rotating bezel, dark-colored dial with large luminous indices, general utilitarian aesthetic, yada, yada, yada.

But since their advent in 1953, some dive watches have chosen to go against type, coming up with unique designs that fall outside the norm.

Whether it’s Doxa with its bright orange dial and dual-function bezel or EPSA’s twin-crown Super Compressors, non-traditional dive watches have a history of worming their way into the hearts and minds of collectors.

One of the most beloved is the Ocean Star Decompression Timer from Mido, and the brand has just launched what may be the watch’s final version — and it may have saved the best for last.

closeup of a mido dive watch on a mans wrist at the beach

Mido Ocean Star Decompression Timer 1961 Black

$1,480 at Mido

Mido’s Favorite Son

The original Mido Decompression Timer was released in 1961 and ranks as the most collectible vintage watch in Mido’s back catalog.

Nicknamed the Rainbow Diver for its colorful dial displaying dive decompression stop times (read more about those here), the original ’60s watch was revived by Mido to great acclaim in 2020 with a limited run of 1,961 watches.

All examples of the reborn Ocean Star Decompression Timer 1961 sold out, but the brand came back with another limited release the following year, this time with a white rainbow dial and blue bezel in place of the original’s black rainbow dial and black bezel. These again were limited to 1,961 pieces, and again, they sold out.

mido dive watch on a deck — The second reissue of the Rainbow Diver in 2021 featured a white dial and blue bezel.

Mido returned to the Decompression Timer format again last year with an entirely new model, the Decompression World Timer, which combined the colorful decompression table dial with a world time bezel and multi-time zone functionality. This style, which comes in two colors, is non-limited, and its extra busy layout has proven to be less popular than the original diver.

That brings us to today, as Mido has once again reissued the original Rainbow Diver style for its latest limited-edition Ocean Star Decompression Timer 1961. But this one is unlike any Rainbow Diver we’ve seen before.

The Dark Rainbow

Rather than having a polished stainless steel case like all previous versions, the new watch’s steel case features a black PVD treatment. The matching Milanese bracelet is also blacked out, leading to a very cool juxtaposition of a bright, rainbow-colored dial and all-black hardware.

mido dive watch hovers over a puddle of water — The rainbow dial and black case and bracelet create a visually pleasing dichotomy.

It’s kind of like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album in watch form. It’s awesome.

Outside of the all-black treatment, this is the same Mido Ocean Star Decompression Timer 1961 we all know and love. It remains a 40.5mm dive watch that’s heavy on the vintage cues with 200m of water resistance, an aluminum bezel insert, a generously domed AR-coated sapphire crystal and — of course — a rainbow-colored dial with markings to guide divers on their decompression stops.

The watch is again powered by the Mido Cal. 80 automatic movement, which is Mido’s name for sister company ETA’s Powermatic 80 movement. Rolled out frequently across the Swatch Group’s portfolio of brands, the modern movement boasts a robust 80 hours of power reserve and features an anti-magnetic Nivachron hairspring.

three mido dive watches hover over a puddle of water — The blacked-out Rainbow Diver comes with three different straps.

In addition to the black mesh bracelet, the watch includes two additional straps. There’s a black leather strap with colorful stitching to match the rainbow dial, and there’s a light-blue Tropic rubber strap for when you really need to amp up the fun vibes.

According to Hodinkee, Mido says this will be the last new iteration of the Decompression Timer for quite some time, which is sure to make this an even hotter seller than it was already destined to be. Limited to 1,961 pieces just as before, the all-black Mido Ocean Star Decompression Timer 1961 is priced at $1,480.