Squale

Squale dates its origins to 1946, when Charles von Büren began making watch cases in Neuchâtel, Switzerland; the Squale name, from the French word for shark, was registered as a trademark in 1959. Through the 1960s and 1970s the firm was primarily a supplier of water-resistant cases to other watch houses, among them Blancpain, Doxa, Heuer and Sinn, while also selling divers under its own name, marked with the shark emblem on the dial. In the 1970s it supplied the Italian Navy's diving units and the Folgore parachute brigade.

Mechanical production stopped in 1989 amid the quartz crisis, when the firm turned to quartz watches. The Maggi family, formerly the brand's Italian distributors, later took over Squale and relaunched it, and in 2020 the headquarters moved from Milan to Chiasso, in Ticino. Since 2017 a special edition of the 2002 has been supplied to the divers of the Italian State Police. The current range reissues the 1521 (the 50 Atmos with its crown at four o'clock), the 2002 and the slimmer 1545 and Sub-39 lines, still based on the original case designs.