Introducing the Mido Baroncelli 100th Anniversary Limited Editions for Men and Women

This year, Mido released a pair of his and her watches celebrating the brand’s 100^th anniversary. Both watches, positioned within the elegant Baroncelli line, come in rose gold PVD cases—the men’s watch is 38 millimeters and the women’s is 33. They also feature polished leaf hands paired with matching rose gold plated hour indices, and are mounted to crocodile grained leather straps with rose gold PVD folding clasps. In a nod to the founding year of Mido, both watches are released in limited editions of 1918 units each.The model marketed to women (ref. M007.236.36.118.00) is powered by the compact automatic ETA 2678 movement, which is, as I wrote above, housed in a diminutive 33mm case. The elabore grade movement beats at 28,800 bph, and it’s been adjusted to three positions. The case is sandwiched between two sapphire crystals with AR for increased legibility.

Shifting to the guys, I found the gent’s variant (ref. M8608.3.26.8) to be fairly interesting. You don’t often find a watch powered by an automatic movement while sporting a small-seconds complication. This is made possible through the use of the ETA 2825 movement, which is built on the workhorse ETA 2824. This movement is also elabore grade and adjusted to three positions.

Inside the 38mm case is a lacquered ivory dial, which sort of looks like enamel but is far more cost-effective. The small-seconds hand is blued and rests within a slightly recessed sub-dial. An applied Roman numeral 12 offsets the simpler baton markers at all other hour positions.

I do have one small issue with the otherwise strong design, and it’s that the “Limited Edition” text feels out of place on such an elegant aesthetic. Mido also decided to position a date window at the 3 o’clock position, which is a take-it-or-leave-it detail for many. The women’s variant is priced at $1,070, and the men’s variant is $1,260, making both of these another really solid value from the Swatch Group brand. Mido