The Mido Multifort Patrimony

By: Andrew Gatto

With Baselworld 2019 wrapping up over a month ago, many of us are still talking about Swatch Group’s decision to stay home and how they are going to release their new watches to the world. Well, at least when it comes to Mido, Swatch has decided to slowly announce new models without much fanfare or extravagance. Mido has expanded their Multifort watch line by releasing the Multifort Patrimony, a vintage inspired piece with three dial and two case color options to choose from.

Mido Multifort Patrimony Specs

• Case Size: 40mm
• Case Thickness: 11.95mm
• Lug Width: 19mm
• Water Resistance: 50 meters
• Movement: Caliber 80 (ETA 2836 base) with 80 hour power reserve

Dating back to 1934, the Mido Multifort line has a wide variety of watches and complications; including chronograph, dual time, day/date and date options for both men and women. As the name suggests, the Multifort Patrimony takes vintage cues from Mido watches your father or grandfather may have owned, but built with today’s materials and modern automatic movement technology.

Mido Multifort Patrimony Case Options:

Mido chose to manufacture all of their new Multifort Patrimony watches from 316L stainless steel due to its inherent magnetic and corrosion resistant properties. In a trend that we’ve seen in the past few years (think gold Seiko Turtle and gold Bulova Computron), Mido is also giving us the option for an affordable “gold” Multifort Patrimony alongside the plain stainless steel. Using the same stainless steel case, Mido has applied a microscopically thin gold colored PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) coating to create a durable surface that most people will mistake for solid gold.

Thankfully, Mido resisted the temptation to make an oversized vintage inspired watch and designed the Multifort Patrimony with a tasteful 40mm case diameter. Not only is it a great diameter, it’s also relatively thin at only 11.95mm thick. Mido should be proud of this because automatic movements and display casebacks are notorious for forcing watch manufacturers to make thick cases. Somehow, Mido was able to design around this and give us a watch that won’t be top heavy and will easily fit under a shirt cuff.

Unfortunately, Mido went with a lug width of 19mm, not the more common 20mm. It may prove difficult to find aftermarket leather straps in this width. Smaller watches like this are a breath of fresh air; Mido actually listened to its customers and made the Multifort Patrimony a comfortable size for the majority of people.

At the 3 o’clock position, a nicely signed push/pull crown operates the movement. It features knurling for grip and a polished end with “MIDO” in raised lettering. The crown matches the case color, either plain stainless steel or gold PVD. On top, a durable sapphire crystal protects the dial while underneath; a display caseback allows you to see the lightly decorated Caliber 80 automatic movement. Typical for dress watches, the Multifort Patrimony has a water resistance of 50 meters.

Patrimony Dial Options

Depending on the case color, you have 3 gorgeous dial options to choose from; blue sunray (steel case), anthracite sunray (steel case) or black sunray (gold PVD case). All three dial colors gradually transform from lighter to darker shades as you move out from the center towards the edge.

The most unique characteristic of the Multifort Patrimony is the fact it has a pulsometer scale on the outer edge of the dial. A pulsometer scale allows you to calculate someone’s heart rate without doing any math in your head. You simply wait for the second hand to reach the 12 o’clock mark and then count 30 heart beats, taking note of where the seconds hand is on the pulsometer scale on the 30th beat. This feature is a nod to Mido’s past pulsometer watches and yet another vintage inspiration they added to this line.

Moving inward, applied Arabic numerals are placed at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 hour marks. The numerals use a vintage style white font that suits the dial and overall watch nicely. All other hour marks are basic baton style white applied markers. Closer to the center of the dial, a minute track is printed in black.

Mido decided their current capitalized and bold font logo would not aesthetically fit this watch, so they designed a printed cursive font logo that perfectly complements the vintage style of this piece. Underneath the logo is “AUTOMATIC” along with “MULTIFORT” in printed text. Just above the 6 o’clock position sits the date window. It is nicely designed and does not cut off any numerals or hour marks, just a small section of the minute track.

One of the nicest features of this watch is its syringe style hour and minute hands. Not very common on modern watches, syringe hands are a welcome throwback from the past that are just unique enough to add personality without being overly strange or out of place. Many watch manufacturers today struggle with making their hands the proper length; however Mido did a wonderful job. The needle on the hour hand reaches the minute track and nearly touches the hour markers while the minute and seconds hand reaches the pulsometer scale for accurate readings. Unlike vintage Midos, the new Multifort Patrimony uses modern Super-LumiNova luminous paint on the hour and minute hands to help you read the time in dark environments. The second hand is either silver (blue dial), black (anthracite dial) or gold (black dial) and features a stylized arrow as its counter weight.

Mido Caliber 80 Movement Details

Inside the Multifort Patrimony is the Caliber 80, a 25 jewel automatic movement based off of the ETA 2836. Featuring an impressive 80 hours of power reserve, the Caliber 80 is found in many of Mido’s watches and has a good track record of reliability. Mido was able to improve the power reserve capacity of the ETA 2836 in part by slowing the beat rate down to 21,600 beats per hour. Although maybe not as smooth as other movements, the second hand still has the characteristic automatic movement sweeping motion.

Leather Straps Options

All three Multifort Patrimony versions come on patina leather straps. The steel case with blue dial comes on a light brown strap, the steel case with anthracite dial comes on a black strap and the PVD gold case with black dial comes on a dark brown strap. All three straps feature cream colored stitching near the ends to give the watch one last vintage inspired nod.

Availability and Price

The steel case blue dial and the PVD gold case black dial are available now on Mido’s USA website. The steel case anthracite dial is currently sold out.

Mido Multifort Patrimony Prices

• M040.407.16.040.00- Blue sunray dial, steel case: $890 USD
• M040.407.16.040.00- Anthracite sunray dial, steel case: $890 USD
• M040.407.36.060.00- Black sunray dial, gold PVD case: $1,000 USD

Check out Mido for more details!