THE INFLUENCE OF THE SMALL SCREEN
With its 1960s-1970s television format, the (almost) square watch with its softened angles returns to the forefront, this time dressed in a rose gold finish and offered in dimensions perfect for the thinnest of wrists.
A screen that generally broadcasts black-and-white images and a very limited number of channels that can be changed by pressing the buttons placed on the frame: these memories awaken a certain nostalgia for those who grew up between the Sixties and Seventies. In 1973, this TV format inspired Mido, which reinterpreted the (almost) square silhouette with its softened angles to shape a watch case. The Swatch Group brand used it twice, in 1980 and 2000, before abandoning it for a few years to concentrate on other projects. In 2023, like a phoenix, the geometric piece resurfaces, and in the face of its success, the Le Locle-based company now offers a smaller version, the Multifort TV 35.
Measuring 35 x 34.2mm for a thickness of 9.3mm, the steel case is water-resistant to 30m and features a rose gold PVD coating, as do the links of the bracelet, and is topped by a curved bezel housing a punched pastille at 12 o’clock. This frames a face in warm shades of chocolate to ebony, curved with a graduated flange. A trio of central dauphine-style hands – hours, minutes, seconds – fly over three trapezoidal hour-markers coated with white Super-LumiNova® with blue emission, eight brilliant-cut diamonds and, at 12 o’clock, a date window. These displays are punctuated by the Calibre 72, designed on an ETA basis and fitted with a NivachronTM balance-spring offering enhanced resistance to wear and magnetism. Beating at a frequency of 25,200 vibrations per hour, this automatic movement delivers a three-day power reserve when fully wound.
