Mido Ocean Star 5907 Powerwind Diver

Mido 5907 Powerwind Diver

Mido Ref 5907 Introduction

The Mido (pronounced ‘Mee doe’) Ocean Star reference 5907, part of the Ocean Star Series, was apparently released in 1961 (though other information dated the introduction 1959/1960, possibly due to the initial Ocean Star series release in 1959) through 1965. The most common dial variant Mido ref 5907, known also as the “Rainbow Diver” and “Powerwind 1000”, features a colorful “exotic” dial, with bright concentric rings highlighting decompression times for depths down to 149 feet.

The “deep dive timer”, as it was called in Mido marketing materials, was produced with different color backgrounds against the “rainbow” dials, in feet and metres versions, date and no-date, and in enough combinations of tension ring color and lume plots that many of the remaining reference 5907s are seemingly unique in configuration.

Please note that this research of the Mido 5907 focuses exclusively on the colorful “rainbow” dial examples. Beyond this dial design we also see an all black dial ref 5907 on occasion. Although I do not follow these, the only examples I know of feature ‘Mido’ printed on the dial, with ‘OCEAN STAR’ text below the center post, ‘SWISS T’ and ‘< 25 mc' at the bottom at 6 o'clock, and black date. These I see in the 305xxxx serial range. Special shout-out to Justin Vrakas at watchsteez for the assistance. Thanks!

Mido Ref 5907 Serial Number Project

Below is my attempt to aggregate all of the Mido ref 5907s I have seen. Though I expected to find more, after exhaustive research I was surprised to find less than 30 examples.

For watches where I do not know the serial number, I have identified it by any portion of the serial number known, plus a post date. The watch represented on each row is intended to be unique within the table, though as watches are bought and sold, there may be some in the table with unknown serial numbers that are the same watch (if you know of any, please let me know).

If you see any errors, or know of other Mido 5907s to add, please drop me a note with links or information.

Production dates were provided by Mido.
I have heard there are a number of Mido 5907 that are owned that are being held by one individual. I am not sure the plans for those, but I would not be surprised to see more trickle out over time. As always, I’ll continue to add to the table below as I see them.

Caveats:
Description of case, hands, dial, applied emblem, tension ring, and crown are based on images found on the internet, and often are guesses for images where the part is not clearly shown. The price shown may be the asking price (converted to USD as of the date posted/seen), though the “true” prices in this table will be shown for closed auctions.

As with the rest of this Website, the following table, and data contained therein, is subject to Alpha Hands LLC Terms and Conditions

The above table, and data contained therein, is subject to Alpha Hands LLC Terms and Conditions

Mido Ref 5907 Dial

A few different elements are seen on the dial, all worth highlighting.

Colorful circles
What makes the Mido ref 5907 stand out in a crowd is the colorful dial, design to prevent confusion during dives, with each concentric circle representing the decompression period necessary.

Each of the four different depth circles begin with “0” and increase as you read clockwise within the circle. The amount of time from 12 o’clock to the “0” is the “clean time”, which is the time not requiring decompression. The numerals following the “0” on the circle indicate the decompression period required in relation to the time spent under water and the depth reached.

Okay, so I’m diving, how do I read this #$@!& dial?!
As an example, on a METRES/METERS dial, the outer blue ring reads “40” at 12 o’clock, which indicates that circle should be used for depths from 40 to 45 metres (depths beyond 45 metres are not shown due to the danger of divers’ narcosis). The “0” appears opposite the 10 minute mark, indicating you can stay at 40-45 metres for 10 minutes without requiring decompression. If you stay for 25 minutes, you would look opposite the 25 minute mark and read 30 within the blue circle, indicating you require 30 minutes of decompression.

How to Read The Mido 5907

Interesting, we can see the change in decompression tables from early white dials to later black dials (see below), specifically a change to the most shallow and deepest depth shown on the dial.

Let’s use the metres dial for an example. With the early white dial (top left, below), if you were at a depth of 40 metres for 55 minutes (outer blue ring), you would require 80 minutes of decompression. Using the later black dial (top right, below), at the same depth and time we see a new dive table is used, advising a more conservative 90 minutes.

Similarly we can see the dive tables change for diving at 25 metres (center yellow ring), again comparing top row images below. At 25 metres the earlier dial shows diving for approximately 34 minutes without requiring decompression, whereas the later dial indicates you can dive to 30 minutes without decompression.

For dive times in the middle of the range shown on the dial (30-35 metres), we also see decompression recommended starting slightly earlier in the dive.

The four dial variations on the Mido ref 5907

Outer dial color
The outer edge of the dial, beyond the blue ring, will be either black or white in color.

Other than that space, dial colors be the same for all watches – the colored decompression timing rings, the white center circle, and black background color where depths are shown at 12 o’clock. I should say that is the case for…most all watches. I have seen images of one watch with depths on a white background, shown below. This dial has much lighter rings, which appear faded, though so consistent in fade that I would be interested in seeing in person, and utilizes a different dive table than those used on pieces noted above. This watch can be most easily identified by the 75 minute decompression time on the outer blue ring at 55 minutes. This interesting watch is an early serial (2210569), which presumably accounts for the use of a different dive table. We see a more conservative dive table used for watches with lower serial numbers, as well as later serials, before the shift again to a still more conservative table.

Mido 5907 with different dive table

Units of measurement
At the top of each dial on either side of the index mark at 12 o’clock is text for the unit of measurement, reading either METRES – METERS or FEET – FEET.

Overall we see more dials with metres/meters as the unit of measurement versus feet.

Numerals within inner circle
Inside the center concentric circle are numerals 3, 6, 9 and 12, with the applied ‘Mido’ emblem just below the 12. The applied Mido emblem appears to be silver on black dials and gold on white dials, though on a number of the images found it is quite difficult to be certain of the color.

Depending on the watch, the hour numerals may or may not be luminous, and there may or may not be plots indicating hours other than 3, 6, 9 and 12. There are no hard and fast rules on when numerals are luminous (though it is uncommon on white dials) and when there are plots (uncommon on black dials).

Text at 6 o’clock
Mido 5907s in the 221x and 310x ranges will have SWISS MADE text at 6 o’clock, with SWISS to the left of the 6 marker, and MADE to the right. In the 252x range we expect to see T SWISS MADE T. We see this text consistently on both black and white dials.

Mido Ref 5907 Case and Mark

We see three different production batches, with all Mido’s one-piece case to eliminate water leakage at the back of the watch, and was tested to a depth of 300m/1000 feet (I have not found any reference to testing of these depths with the cork seal). The watch is a patented Bernard Taubert (15 June 1960 (Patent No. CH346175)) front-loading (with the movement placed in the case before the crown and winding stem is inserted) design, requiring a special Mido Ocean Star tool to remove and fit the crystal, a system known as “Permalift”.[1] For those looking, these Mido Ocean Star tools may still be found reasonably easily on eBay, and were designed and patented by Taubert as well. [3]

Paired with this case is the “Aquadura” cork sealing system, which was Mido’s successor after the Taubert & Fils corked-sealed winding stem patent (Brevet No. 130942, 1928) expired. [2] It appears that Mido claims to have the patent on the cork seal in 1934, though this follows Taubert & Fils, and curiously Mido shows an image from the Taubert patent on their Mido history web page.

The case measures 38mm across all patches, 45mm lug to lug. Each production period has some standard configurations of case plus other features (dial color, unit of measurement (metres or feet), tension ring color, lume plots on the tension ring, etc.) though there are so many different variations in the Mido ref 5907, it is reasonable to assume that this list may change as more are found.

Mk 1 (1959-62):
First production batch
Serial number located between the lugs
No reference number or serial number stamped on caseback
White dial
No date window
Gold hour and seconds hand (always with white dials)
Non-luminous hour index marks, numerals in center circle, and center plots
Black or white tension ring, with or without lume plots

Inside caseback:
Mido
LIMITED
OCEAN-STAR
SWITZERLAND
VACUUM
D+58461
RUSTLESS
STEEL

Mk 1 Transitional (1962):
Second production batch
Reference number is stamped on caseback
Black dials first appeared in this batch
Date window first appeared in this batch
Silver hour and seconds hand
White tension ring

Inside caseback:
[no image available]

Mk 2 (1962-65):
Last batch
Serial number and reference number are stamped on caseback
Predominantly white dials
Date window

Inside caseback:
Mido
LIMITED
OCEAN-STAR
SWITZERLAND
VACUUM
PATENT
RUSTLESS
STEEL

The three casebacks available for the Mido Ref 5907 Powerwind Diver

[1, 2] Mido Watches: Part 2, C.1955-2000, The Watch Forum
[3] FRANÇOIS BORGEL, LOUISA BORGEL, AND THE TAUBERT FAMILY, NAWCC (2013)

Mido Ref 5907 Bezel

There are two types of bezels found on the Mido 5907.

The first bezel, which we see appear up through early 22106xxx case numbers, features the number “0”. The second bezel type, later in number (which is most pieces, starting at 221063xx), feature a solid dot instead. All bezels are bi-directional, with black paint for the numbers, marks, and dot as applicable.

The Mido 5907 Bi-Directional Bezels (L: early, R: later)
Mido Ref 5907 Hands

Hands on the Mido ref 5907 all have the same combination of dauphine hour and pencil minute. In most all cases both hands are luminous, though a handful of examples have been seen with non-luminous hands, all with white dial and gold hands in the 221xxxx range. Given all seen non-luminous hands were paired with non-luminous dials, I am inclined to believe these are original to the watches.

An old catalog image contains an example with baton hour hand, though I have never seen an image other than in that catalog, and it is unclear whether this hand was ever used in production. This image is unusual in that the watch appears to have been worn, judging from the scratches on the bezel, and the dot on the bezel appears to have some color to it, that is not black…this raises questions to me if the hands are not actually correct in this example.

In general, we see silver hour and seconds hands with black dials, regardless of metres or feet units, although there is one exception we have seen with gold hands, and gold hands paired with white dials, again regardless of metres or feet. Likewise the ‘Mido’ emblem is silver on black dials and gold on white.

The silver seconds hand has a different shape than the gold seconds hand. The silver seconds has a a flat end at the tail, tapers sharply in to the center, then is the same thickness for the long end of the hand. The gold hand in contrast has a pointed tail, expands to its maximum width quickly and then consistently tapers all the way though to the tip.

Mido 5907 Hands
Range of Mido 5907 hands

We also see two other styles of hands, each found on two pieces. One is a sword design for both hour and minute, and the others are straight hands, with flat ends.

I believe the examples with sword hands, found on later Ocean Star timepieces, are replacements (the examples with the sword hands are separated by ~500 serial numbers). The first example has a red bezel dot, is polished, and have dark lume, so reasonable to believe that hands were replaced.

The examples with straight flat ends are separated by ~400 serial numbers, and I also do not believe are original to the watches on which they are found. One example is a project watch in poor condition, so not surprising to have different hands. The second example has a dial that appears to be in good condition, curiously also without a bezel.

Mido Ref 5907 Tension Ring

Tension ring color generally matches that of the dial, though examples exist of black dials with white tension rings, and white dials with black tension rings. In addition, we also see silver (reflective) tension rings as well.

The tension ring may or may not have radium luminous plots at each hour. If there are plots, they are more likely to be found on a white/silver tension ring.

What to watch for: when a 5907 features a tension ring with luminous plots, but the hands are non-luminous. Maybe it is original, but makes no sense to me!

The four tension ring variations on the Mido ref 5907

My understanding is that the crystal diameter is 30.9mm, though I have not personally measured, and the tension ring is smaller, though I do not know the diameter.

Mido Ref 5907 Crown

The crown of the Mido ref 5907, regardless of production batch, will always be signed Mido and is 4.7mm in diameter.

Original signed Mido 5907 crown
Mido Ref 5907 Crystal

Take a close look…original crystal on the ref 5907 will be signed Mido in the center. My understanding is that the crystal diameter is 30.9mm, though I have not personally measured.

Original signed Mido 5907 crystal
Mido Ref 5907 Movement

I have seen two types of movements, both automatic, to date:
1. On earlier (2210xxx) non-date pieces: Mido 917PO (18,000bph, 12″, for Ocean Star pieces, base plate AS 1131/1132)

2. On later (3050xxx) date pieces: Mido 1137 OC (19,800bph, 13″ for Ocean Star pieces, base plate AS 1717; related technical details as with the 1147OC)

Some sites will reference the Mido using a caliber 619, but I have never seen such a movement in a Mido 5907, nor elsewhere.

Movements used in the Mido 5907
Mido Ref 5907 Bracelet

There were two varieties of bracelets original to the Mido ref 5907.

Bonklip-style
The first style seen on the Mido is the Bonklip, manufactured by B.H. Britton and Sons. This bracelet is found on both early and late batches. We see the Bonklip-style as the most common the Mk 1 pieces, but also on the Mk 2, and is not clear if it was a possible original bracelet for both periods, which would be more accurately determined by comparing the date stamp to the serial number. Given how inexpensive these bracelets are, it would not be unusual for these Bonklip-style bracelets to have been purchased later and added to an earlier piece. Oh, and how do I put this delicately….this is an awful, awful bracelet to wear. 😀

While a number of companies made this style of bracelet (also referred to as “bamboo bracelets”) during the production period of the Mido ref 5907, there is no stamp indicating the maker of the Mido bracelet, which I would expect to find if the bracelet was produced by either Bonklip, Gay Freres or Krementz. It is more likely that this was produced by another smaller manufacturer.

The “buckle” on the Bonklip-style will have a Mido stamp with the quarter and date on one side, and the words “STEELINOX” and “SWISS MADE” on the other. These were not expensive bracelets, and not surprisingly, the quality of the stamping varied.

I have seen one later bracelet (1967), included on a 5907, that appears not to have the “STEELINOX” and “SWISS MADE”. Given the spread of years in which these were ultimately sold, it is not surprising to see bracelets from a period later than the production of the 5907.

Mesh
The second style of bracelet found on the Mido reference 5907 is mesh, found primarily on Mk 2 batches. Again, being relatively inexpensive, a mesh bracelet may have been added later to a Mk 1 piece. There is a Mido stamp on the buckle, but as with the Bonklip-style bracelet, no maker’s mark. These mesh bracelets do not indicate production date.

The two bracelets available for the Mido ref 5907
Mido Ref 5907 For Sale and Price Trends

Please contact me if you know of any other pieces, have serial numbers to contribute, or corrections.

You may use the filters in the table at bottom to view data for a subset of case numbers, and this will filter the price trends chart as well.

Unfortunately, the plugin used to generate the chart below may cause the chart to squished horizontally. As a workaround, if you adjust your browser window size slightly, the chart with adjust to proper full width. Oh, and sometimes random “J”s are added to the x-axis. Those actually are for “Jan” and “July”…no way for me to remove those, unfortunately.

As with the rest of this Website, the following table, and data contained therein, is subject to Alpha Hands LLC Terms and Conditions

Again, selecting filters from the table below will in turn update the above chart.

The above chart and table, and data contained therein, is subject to Alpha Hands LLC Terms and Conditions

Mido Ref 5907 Manual and Instruction Booklet

Attached is the Mido deep diver manual and instruction booklet, available via the image below. This Mido manual is specific to the Mido 5907. The manual includes all the detail needed to know on how to use the dial to measure dive times.

Mido 5907 Manual/Instruction Booklet, click to view
Mido Ref 5907 Diver Advertisement

Below is the only Mido 5907 advertisement I have ever seen, this from a UK diving magazine from 1968.
Thanks to Nick at Ad Patina for sharing this rare find.

Advertisment for the Mido 5907 Diver
Mido Ocean Star Guarantee and Information Brochure

Attached is the Mido Ocean Star Guarantee and Information Brochure, available via the image below. This Mido Guarantee and Information Brochure covers the entire line of Ocean Star timepieces. One of the more interesting pieces in this brochure is the list of Mido Ocean Star distributors across the world at the time – 111 countries! And a reminder that only “Mido watchmakers” have access to the special tool needed to open these cases.

Mido 5907 Guarantee and Information Brochure, click to view
Mido Ocean Star Tool and Order Form

The Mido Ocean Star line of watches uses a custom tool to remove the crystal first when servicing the watch. The metal tool would pair with one of the included metal inserts in order to remove the crystal.

Detail of Mido Ocean Star Tools

In addition, there was an order form for the watchmaker to order the correct crystal and tension ring, with or without luminous material, in a number of different colors/finishes.

Mido Ocean Star Tools and Order Form
Mido Ocean Star Decompression Timer

The…get ready…Mido Ocean Star Decompression Timer 1961 Limited Edition (M026.807.11.051.00), yes a mouthful, isn’t a reissue of the Mido Ocean Star 5907 covered previously, but rather so strongly takes it inspiration from it I felt it should be mentioned as well. As an aside, I thought the Mido Powerwind 5907 was issued in 1959, though I can’t explain the naming of the Decompression Timer as “1961” (unless they got a break on costs by manufacturing 2 more timepieces for their run of 1961 pieces).

The colorful “rainbow” dial is of course the most obvious link between the Decompression Time and the Mido 5907, but other than that we see significant changes with this introduction. The Decompression Timer is offered in a black dial only, with date, and markings in both meters and feet. In comparison, the original 5907 which was available in both black and white dials, with different tension ring options (both colors and luminous plots), either meters or feet, and with or without date. The Decompression Timer is unfortunately, in my opinion, larger at 40.5mm case and 21mm lug width (just…why?), versus the 5907 at 38mm and 18mm, respectively.

The Decompression Timer has a much stronger look, with shorter and thicker lugs, a rotating black bezel with lume dot, and crown guards. There is no suffering with a Bonklip-style, as Mido selected a mesh stainless steel bracelet (and two additional straps, one leather and one synthetic fabric). With the date window and straps, I’ll let others decide if the target market is divers for this offering. The Decompression Tier features an automatic movement as with the original 5907, updated to the Mido Caliber 80. The caseback features a star, though I have to admit I miss the diver on the 5907 caseback.

Mido Ocean Star Decompression Timer 1961 Limited Edition