Swiss watchmaker Squale has unveiled the latest Super Squale line-up of watches, which features five new variants that fall firmly within the ‘skin diver’ category. This is a popular area that the Italian-Swiss firm has made largely its own in recent years, thanks to a range of stylish and competitively-priced watches that offer real heritage and quality. ‘Squale’ of course means shark in Italian, so it doesn’t get much more ocean-going than this.
Although similar to the professional dive watches that first put Squale on the map in its early days, these days the skin diver variant usually describes thinner watches that are easier to wear and have a different aesthetic to the traditionally chunky diver. Wetsuits are strictly optional here, as they were designed for amateur divers.
Those are the differences. In reality, the most recent skin divers have all the bells and whistles of a modern professional dive watch, and this latest release from Squale is no exception.
$2,007.00 CAD
$2,007.00 CAD
$2,007.00 CAD
The new Super Squale is water resistant to 200 metres and features a sapphire crystal, screw-down crown, and a tried and trusted Sellita SW-200 Swiss movement beating underneath.
The eye-catching design is what sets it apart though, with an acknowledgement of Squale’s long history but also a fresh look at what people need from a watch these days: an approach that Squale tries to bring to all of its products.
There are five dial variants for the new Super Squale, each available on a stainless steel bracelet or leather strap. You get a choice of five colours: brown (which will be a UK exclusive) grey, and black, with the sunray pattern, enhancing the vintage vibe, as well as standard matt blue and black dials.
The black and blue versions feature colour-matched aluminium bezel inserts, as opposed to the sunray colourways, which feature a steel bezel.
Perhaps the most significant difference though comes in terms of telling the actual time. The sunray options feature traditional lume circles and trapezoids at each hour, for a real vintage look. The black and blue versions include large Arabic numerals instead.
Both work well and have their place in history; so the choice of what to go for is very much down to personal taste. The case is 38mm and the whole watch is only 45mm wide: a classically elegant size that personifies the heyday of early dive watches.
Expect to pay just under £1000 in the UK for the Super Squale, making it one of the best value propositions at this level.
For that, you get a lot of history. The Super Squale model was first launched in the 1960s, and immediately became one of the company’s best-sellers. That was always part of the plan: back in
1959, company founder Charles Von Buren actually registered the “Super Squale” trademark together with the “Squale” brand itself.
Only now though does it make a comeback – and from what we can see from our first look so far, all the ingredients are in place for it to become just as successful as its illustrious predecessor.
