The world of independent watch brands is something in itself. A wonderful world where brands have managed to build up their own followings, often without resorting to what many may consider ‘lesser’ tactics of larger brands. Squale is one of such brands that falls outside of the mainstream of Swiss watch brands, but has its own cult following that it has built since the mid-20th century.
The founder of Squale, Charles von Büren was an avid diver and sportsman who dived recreationally and also in searching for artifacts in the Mediterranean with his family. The company was originally founded in 1946 and called ‘von Büren S.A. / Montres’, focused on producing watch cases. It was only in 1959 that the brand name ‘Squale’ was registered as von Büren started to take a commercial interest in dive watches to compete with the likes of Rolex, Blancpain, and Zodiac that already had popular models. The new name was meant to be close to ‘shark’ in Italian – ‘squalo’, hence the brand’s logo. As they started to produce more and more dive watches in the 1960s, the company was also producing dive watch cases, now for brands like Blancpain and Doxa.
Squale Saphir / Credit: Analog/Shift
One of Squale’s biggest breakthroughs came in the late 1960s when Squale produced their first Squale 1000-meter dive watch and also earned acclaim as the brand of choice for several champion athletes, including: the 1967 Cuban Champion Spearfishing team, the 1967 World Champion – Jean Tapu, and several others from the era. The championship that year was held in Varadero, Cuba – which can be viewed here. It’s quite something to watch the spearfishermen practice their sport, as they have sometimes had to hold their breath for over 2 minutes, highlighting the importance of a reliable timepiece for these competitions.
Squale’s new, 1000-meter dive watch was called the Squale Master and it was quite the diver. Apart from 1000-meter water resistance, it also had a bi-colour rotating Bakelite bezel, two luminous markers at 12 and 6 for legibility, and a screwdown crown!
Spearfishing / Credit: Florida Sportsman
These developments only made Squale ever-more popular when it came to dive watches, leading them to supply timepieces for the French Green Berets, the Folgore Brigade of the Italian air force, the Italian navy’s diving corps. Other achievements of this bright period in dive watch history for Squale include Enzo Maiorca’s 1967 immersion record with the Squale Master and Jacques Mayol’s 1970 record of 76 meters also wearing a Squale. The 1980s also saw Squale in film, with Jackie Chan wearing a Squale Rambo in 1987’s Armour of God.
It was only when the founder Charles von Büren retired that Squale was acquired by the Maggi family, friends of the von Büren family, who still own and operate the company out of Milan. Today they continue to focus on dive watches with the third generation of the Maggi family managing the company.
By: Andres Ibarguen
Read more:
“About Squale.” Squale, https://web.archive.org/web/20180616030130/http://www.squale.ch/public/download_area/Link_2.pdf.
“Lost Wrecks.” Squale, https://www.squale.ch/en/lost_wrecks.
Heaton, Jason. “Blood In The Water, Water In Its Blood: A Brief History of Squale.” Hodinkee, April 16th, 2014, https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/blood-in-the-water-water-in-its-blood-a-brief-history-of-squale.
“CUBA WORLD SPEAR FISHING CHAMPIONSHIPS – 1967.” Youtube, uploaded by usfa1963, December 17th, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGZgY-jA8EQ&ab_channel=usfa1963.
“Armour of God.” Watches in Movies, https://watchesinmovies.info/movies/armour-of-god-1987/.