Description
Mido has added a new colourway to its most quietly compelling dive watch: the Ocean Star 39 now comes in “Abyss Blue,” a desaturated, greenish-grey blue meant to read like deep ocean water rather than the navy-or-royal tones that dominate the affordable-diver shelf. It is a small change on paper and a meaningful one on the wrist, because it lands on a watch whose proportions and movement were already among the best value in the category.
This is not a complication story or a limited edition — it is a value story. At USD 1,350 the Ocean Star 39 Abyss Blue offers a slim 39mm Swiss automatic diver with a 72-hour power reserve and an antimagnetic hairspring, and for the first time this dial is offered on a steel bracelet as well as the matching rubber strap. For anyone shopping for a do-everything sub-$1,500 diver, it is squarely aimed at the buyer who likes the look of an Omega Seamaster but not the price.
Design
The Ocean Star 39 keeps the line’s signature three-dimensional wave dial — irregular, naturalistic ripples that come across as a more organic cousin of the Seamaster Diver 300M’s wave pattern — now rendered in the new Abyss Blue. Applied triangle and dot hour markers, a lollipop seconds hand and a date window at 3 o’clock complete a classic, legible dive layout, and the blue carries over onto the coin-edge bezel with its aluminium insert. The 39mm stainless steel case has a Submariner-adjacent silhouette with an unguarded crown at 3 o’clock, a sapphire crystal, and a screw-down caseback engraved with the Ocean Star starfish that dates back to the 1940s original.
The headline figure is thickness: at just 10.5mm the case is one of the slimmest in the affordable-diver field, which makes a 200m-rated tool watch genuinely easy to wear under a cuff. The Abyss Blue version ships with both an Abyss Blue rubber strap (quick-release, steel pin buckle) and a steel three-link bracelet with quick-release endlinks and a folding clasp — the first time this particular dial has been offered on the bracelet.
Specifications
- Reference: M026.907.11.041.01 (bracelet); matching rubber-strap variant also offered
- Case diameter: 39mm
- Case thickness: 10.5mm
- Lug-to-lug: approx. 46mm
- Case material: stainless steel
- Bezel: unidirectional dive bezel, coin-edge, Abyss Blue aluminium insert
- Crystal: sapphire
- Caseback: screw-down steel, engraved Ocean Star starfish
- Water resistance: 200m
- Dial: “Abyss Blue” 3D wave texture; applied triangle/dot markers; lollipop seconds; date at 3 o’clock
- Movement: Mido Calibre 72 (base ETA A31.111), automatic — not in-house
- Balance spring: Nivachron (antimagnetic)
- Frequency: 25,200 vph (3.5 Hz)
- Power reserve: 72 hours
- Functions: hours, minutes, seconds, date
- Strap/bracelet: Abyss Blue rubber strap and steel three-link bracelet (both quick-release)
- Limited edition: no — regular collection
- Price: USD 1,350 (set including extra rubber strap)
- Availability: available now
What's Exciting
This is exactly the kind of value play that rewards a close look. The compact ETA A31.111 — slimmer than the Powermatic 80 found across much of the Swatch Group’s affordable range — is what lets Mido keep a 39mm case at a genuinely wearable 10.5mm while still delivering a Nivachron hairspring and a 72-hour reserve. Those are specs that shame a lot of pricier watches, and they sit inside a case with proper 200m water resistance.
The colour choice is the smart part. A deep, slightly green-grey blue is a welcome break from the endless navy of affordable divers, and putting the dial on a bracelet for the first time turns a good-looking watch into a properly versatile one — rubber for the beach, steel for everything else, both in the box. As a Seamaster alternative at roughly a tenth of the Omega’s price, the Ocean Star 39 Abyss Blue is one of the most convincing buys in its bracket.
History
Mido’s Ocean Star name reaches back to the 1940s and 1950s, when the brand built its reputation on robust, water-resistant cases (the Aquadura cork-sealed crown system) and made the Ocean Star a byword for accessible toughness. The modern revival turned the Ocean Star into Mido’s core dive collection, anchored for years by the 42.5mm Ocean Star 200 and 200C.
The Ocean Star 39 arrived in 2024 as a deliberately downsized, more contemporary take — trimming roughly 3.5mm of diameter off the standard model for a more classical, everyday-friendly diver. Crucially, the move to the compact ETA A31.111 (Mido’s Calibre 72) is what made the slimmer case possible. The Abyss Blue is the latest and arguably best-judged colourway in that 39mm line, and the first to come on a bracelet.
