Up, Not Down: A Squale 2001 Sand in the Alps

A few months back we brought Squale into the CW Watch Shop, and I’ll be honest with you. The watches I saw online didn’t make sense to me. They didn’t click until I got my hands on them at our booth at the Windup Watch Fair at Fort Mason this past May.

Squale is a historied brand with serious credentials. For decades they built cases for some of the bigger fish in the watch world, Blancpain, Doxa, and Heuer among them. Unlike a lot of those names, Squale stayed privately held. The brand sits with the Maggi family today, who first came up as Squale’s Italian distributors before taking it over from founder Charles von Büren in the early aughts.

Here is the thing about Squale. A lot of the models don’t make sense until you see them in person. Some might call that a downside. I call it the opposite. So many watches impress online and let you down in the metal. Squale runs the other way. They impress far more in person than they ever do on a screen, and when you handle them in person with knowing the historical context behind them their even more impressive.

The 2001 is the perfect example. I went through the whole catalog getting these watches ready for our systems and our site, and the 2001 never once stood out. If anything it was the first one I passed over. Then I saw it in person and it all made sense. The cushion case shape with its genuinely wearable geometry due to the integrated lugs. The jangly ladder bracelet that feels straight out of the era. The one-of-a-kind push-to-release bezel. It carries all the charm you could want in a modern tool watch while paying real respect to its vintage predecessors. Some might say it looks similar to a Doxa, I might turn that on it’s head and say a Doxa looks a lot like a Squale 2001.

I was struck by the whole ambiance of the 2001 in Sand. The fully lumed bezel, the 70s character, the easy charm of it. As much as I loved the new Sub 37 sitting right next to it, I could not stop thinking about the Sand. It is one of those watches that makes you want to toss it on every morning. Perfect for the hot humid days we get here in South Carolina where I reside and a true tool watch I won’t think twice about wearing on an adventure.

And the 2001 was built for adventures. This was a watch made for professional divers and adventurers, back when lives genuinely depended on it. That is the whole point of the unidirectional locking bezel. Get it wrong underwater and things go badly. The history runs deep too. In 1972, at the start of his Antarctic expedition, Jacques Cousteau gave a Squale 2001 to Michel Laval, first officer of the Calypso, the caseback engraved with Cousteau’s initials and Laval’s name. Squale’s recent Heritage limited edition was a faithful reproduction of that exact black and orange piece. That is saying something.

The one real difference between the original and what I’m wearing comes down to depth. The vintage 2001 was rated to 100 atmospheres, right around 1,000 meters. The modern version is good to 600m. Still far deeper than any snorkeling I’ll ever do. Because here is my confession. I don’t dive. Adventures on land are my thing. So once I decided to buy the 2001 Sand it felt only right to take it on its maiden voyage in the exact opposite direction it was built to go. Up.

My Squale landed in the Sand livery just before I left on a country-hopping trip I planned a bit off the cuff after an invite from my friend to ride bikes in the Bavarian Alps that happend to coinside with my schedule. The next day I was on a plane. The day after that I was in Zurich on my way to the Alps. My friend was picking me up in Bregenz, near where he lives part of the year, and from there we based out of Ehrwald at the foot of the Zugspitze. The goal was simple. Ride up to as many high alpine “Hüttes” as we could in the four days we had. Alpine Snack Shacks, as I like to call them.

The weather was spectacular and, against everything I know about myself, I could not ride slow enough. The scenery, the sounds, the smells and the people along the way all begged me to ease off and take it in. We still managed about 150 miles off road on mountain bikes and somewhere near 18,000 feet of climbing across three big rides. I brought tools I actually enjoy. The Squale 2001 and my Leica IIIg came along on every one of those rides. Both of them wear fresh scratches now that prove they were there.

So what is this. A watch review? A photo essay? A little of both, honestly. I believe, photos, words and tools help tell a well rounded story by covering the visual, written and tangible elements of it. The 2001 is one of those watches that got under my skin and ruined the rest of the watch box for a while. If you’ve collected for any length of time you know exactly what I mean. It has barely left my wrist in the few weeks I’ve owned it. And now it is summer in the temperate rainforest we call the upstate of South Carolina, and this watch is made for it. The mix of history, charm, vintage soul and honest tool-watch character makes it a pure joy to wear and enjoy using.