This Affordable Automatic Travel Watch is Drenched in ‘70s Vibes

Mido’s Ocean Star is one of the best-kept secrets in dive watches.

As part of the titanic Swatch Group, it is effectively a little cousin to the Omega Seamaster with a far more approachable price tag.

While the overall quality isn’t the same, Mido offers much more bang for your buck.

Mido

The best part about the relationship is that Mido has a distinct design language and doesn’t just trade on the brand capital of its iconic siblings. Sure, some models approximate certain Seamasters and Fifty Fathoms, but more tread their own path with distinct hands, day-date windows and case shapes.

Few Ocean Stars depart further from Omega than the new Worldtimer reference, which also stands apart from the rest of its collection. Its 1970s-inspired dial, bund strap and world time bezel make it more of a travel watch than a dive watch.

Mido

While it retains high aquatic aptitude with a 200m water resistance, the dive bezel has been swapped out for an underutilized simple travel hack that doesn’t require an additional pricey complication.

Here, there and everywhere

A world time bezel is very different from a world time complication, or even a GMT for that matter. Those complications do the work for you by displaying two or all time zones at once.

Mido

A world time bezel functions more like a chart on your wrist than a complication. When you hop zones, you still have to set the watch to local time, but the bezel gives you a cheat sheet for doing the simple math to see what time it is worldwide.

When traveling, the bezel has to be adjusted to reflect the local time zone at 12 o’clock. Major cities represent the world’s 24 zones, and a plus sign or minus sign before each city helps guide your mental math.

Mido

Along with being a simple and practical travel hack, it is a fun novelty to have on a watch. World time bezels have been fairly rare since the 1970s, but they’re showing up more and more in 2025.

Flying economy

Seiko, Hamilton, Tissot and Citizen dominate the mid-tier, affordable automatic watch market, but Mido deserves to be mentioned in that conversation. As a member of the Swatch Group alongside Hamilton and Tissot, it has access to ETA movement design and production, as well as massive supply chain resources.

Mido

The lack of name recognition is a benefit because Mido isn’t saddled with the luxury price increase that the Swatch Group places on brands like Omega and Blancpain.

The Ocean Star offers a lot of watch for $1,000. It has a 40mm stainless steel case with a crown guard, a sapphire glass box crystal with AR coating, a screw-down crown and a screw-in case back.

You can argue whether it is still a dive watch because the aluminum bezel insert doesn’t have a dive scale. But the ETA-made caliber 80 automatic movement with a day-date complication and an 80-hour power reserve is beyond reproach for the price.

Mido

The Ocean Star Worldtimer is another distinct and intriguing offering from Mido with an approachable price, further cementing its reputation for high-value automatic watches.

I appreciate the bund strap matching the uber-1970s dart board dial, but the watch looks much better with the plain black strap.

Availability and pricing

The Mido Ocean Star Worldtimer is available now from Mido for $1,070.

Although it departs from the dive watch aesthetic of the Ocean Star collection, it is not a limited edition.

Mido

Mido Ocean Star Worldtimer

Traditionally a dive watch, this little cousin to the Omega Seamaster gets a retro, travel-friendly revamp with a world time bezel and 1970s dial treatment. It comes on a black leather bund strap. It runs on a brand-specific version of the Swatch Powermatic 80 automatic movement, packing an impressive 80-hour power reserve.

• $1,070 at Mido

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