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There are 1970s automatics that age into curiosities, and there are 1970s automatics that age into actual jewelry. To us, the Mido Multi Star Datoday lands firmly in the second camp, and this particular Ref. 6929300 is the kind of example that quietly reminds us why the Multi Star line still earns space in collector cases more than fifty years later.
Mido was founded in Le Locle in 1918 by Georges Schaeren, and by the early 1970s the brand was part of the ASUAG holding alongside ETA, Eterna, and a dozen other Swiss names that would eventually consolidate into what is now Swatch Group. The Multi Star sub-line traced its DNA to the Multifort series introduced in 1934, which had built Mido’s reputation as a maker of robust, anti-shock, anti-magnetic automatics. By the mid-1970s, that engineering pedigree was being poured into cases that were unapologetically of their decade, and the Multi Star Datoday became one of the most visible expressions of that confidence.
The “Datoday” designation is a Mido portmanteau, a contraction of date and today, used by the brand for its day-date complications across the Commander, Ocean Star, and Multi Star families. Under that day-date window beats the Mido Cal. 1819, a 17-jewel automatic from the brand’s internal four-digit caliber series of the period. Through the removed caseback you can see a Mido-signed gold-tone half-rotor turning over a clean nickel finish, with “SEVENTEEN 17 JEWELS SWISS” and “UNADJUSTED” running along the rotor edge in the workmanlike way Mido marked its mid-tier movements of the era. It is honest, well-built Swiss engineering rather than haute horlogerie, but it is the exact category of caliber that simply keeps running, decade after decade, with nothing more than periodic service.
The case wears as a 38mm cushion in gold tone, with a 42mm lug-to-lug and a slim profile that tucks under a shirt cuff far more politely than the photos let on. Mido finished the top surfaces with a soft satin brushing and high-polished the flanks, a contrast that catches light at different angles and gives the case a sculpted quality. The caseback is a separate stainless steel disc, stamped “Mido / SWISS MADE / STAINLESS STEEL BACK / BREVET DEPOSE” on its outer face and stamped on the case-side tab with the reference “6929300” and caliber “1819”. The case shows honest, light surface scuffing across the polished flanks and a few fine hairlines along the bezel, exactly the kind of character that we would expect from a watch that has lived in rotation rather than a safe.
The dial is the headline. A genuine fumé treatment radiates from a warm amber outer chapter into a deep, smoky brown at the center, with the gradient sitting under a lacquered finish that picks up light in a way matte dials never can. Applied gold-tone baton indices ring the chapter on a raised step, and gold dauphine hands sweep across that gradient with a thin dark seconds hand for contrast. The Mido cursive logo sits at twelve with “AUTOMATIC” printed in small caps below, and the MULTI ★ STAR signature with “datoday” script anchors the lower half above the very small “T SWISS MADE T” chapter marking, the tritium notation telling us the dial left the factory somewhere in the mid-1970s tritium era. The day-date window at three reads cleanly in white and black, perfectly aligned with the chapter ring.
It comes presented on a black leather strap with white contrast stitching in 20mm, a quietly luxurious pairing that lets the gold case and fumé dial carry the visual weight. Anything brown or cognac would also work beautifully here, and a tan ostrich or a tonal cordovan would push it further toward 1970s evening territory if that is your taste.
Serviced in-house at OTTUHR and backed by our 2-year mechanical warranty, this Multi Star Datoday is for the collector who values dial drama over case size, and who would rather wear something genuinely characterful than chase another sports-watch reissue. To us, this is one of the most quietly compelling Mido references of the decade, and a wildly handsome way into the vintage Mido conversation.
