Squale 1521 Full Luminous Militaire Watch Review

The new 1521 Full Luminous Militaire watch from Squale has a COSC-certified automatic movement at its centre and ensures diving credentials are met with a unidirectional rotating bezel, a fully luminous dial and a 500-meter water-resistant rating.

The 1521 watch collection by Squale is quite an important one for the brand. It harkens back to a time when the company founder, Charles Von Buren designed the dive watch, engraving the 1521 number into its case back. Since then, the Squale 1521 watch has remained pretty faithful to the original design and comes with some distinct features worth mentioning. The models from the collection are designed with a crown situated at 4 o’clock - a feature that became a trademark look for this watch and a practical way to avoid accidental knocks and bumps. The 120-click bezel is another important design feature since it prevents the risk of accidentally extending dive time whilst underwater. Instead, it fixes in place and moves only one way, with a minute hand that can be aligned with the triangular zero position on the bezel to measure the desired time.

The 1521 watch by Squale is often characterised by its coloured minute hand. This year, the company has released some new models to the line, all certified to COSC standards and all finished with a mix of brushed and polished effects on their cases for enhancing a modern look. Alongside these new releases are two 1521 Classic COSC watches, which we covered in an article here, complete with a bright blue dial and a more conservative black model. Both have anodized aluminium unidirectional rotating bezels that match the colour of their respective dials and are fitted on black rubber bands. Other new releases include the 1521 Green Ray and Bronze models in strikingly rich colours, and the new 1521 Full Luminous Militaire watch, which we’re going to look at in more detail today. First, a brief history of Squale, the maker of these superb dive watches.

A brief history of Squale

Squale is a company that was founded back in the early fifties, bound by a love of the sea and diving. Charles Von Buren first began working on cases and parts for third parties. A clue could be found in the cases of these watches, marked with the Squale name. During the 1960s, Squale began focussing on developing watches of its own, with the Squale branding on the dial. Models such as the Master 50 ATM did incredibly well, as did the first 1000-meter water-resistant watch during the 1970s. During this time, Squale was still producing watches for other companies and began to supply the elite corps of the armed forces, including the Italian Navy Diving Corps and Italy’s Folgore Brigade parachutists. As a result, the brand is still enjoying its reputation as a benchmark-setter throughout the industry for quality dive watches with a bit of a difference.

The new 1521 Militaire watches are similar to the blue and black Classic COSC watches, which we covered in more detail here. They all share a highly legible dial with markers and hands that have been coated in Super-LumiNova material and a unidirectional rotating bezel. The Full Lume Militare versions share the same 42mm diameter as the Classic models. This model, however, merges the qualities of the 1521 Full Lumen watch with the 1521 Militaire to create an indispensable tool for wearing whilst on the go. Cave exploration, mine work, or tasks that take you deep into the night will become easier with a watch like the Full Luminou Militare watch on your wrist. Here’s why...

The new Squale 1521 Full Luminous Militaire Watch

The Full Luminous Militaire watch still shares the same features as the other new 1521 models for this year but offers a stunning fully luminous dial surface that matches perfectly with the luminous markings of its bezel to provide the time against blacked-out hands and hour markers. The 42mm module is executed in a mix of polished and brushed effects, and frames a white legible dial with a black unidirectional rotating bezel with a 60-minute scale marked out in white. One of the key features of the watch is that you can enjoy it on a supple black sporty rubber band or a stainless steel mesh bracelet, the latter of which gives the overall design a distinctive retro charm. Either way, the white dial is punctuated by sharp orange and black stick markers around the hour track, as well as straight yet visible central hour and minute hands. Considering Squale used to manufacture cases for the likes of Sinn, the dial of the watch is ever-so-slightly Sinn-inspired – a spacious layout with simple details that promote quick timekeeping in emergency situations. Added to these features against the clean white backdrop is a set of black-coated central hour and minute hands and the Squale lettering at 12 o’clock. No other features are provided on the dial itself.

As mentioned, you can certainly get your use out of a black legible unidirectional rotating diver bezel, which can be aligned with the minute hand to record elapsed time whilst underwater. In addition to this, the watch is 500-meter water resistant, enabling you to explore daring underwater depths whenever you wish. To help with this, a screw-down crown at 4 o’clock ensures a water-tight environment inside the case and a strong glass front crafted from anti-reflective sapphire crystal glass. The watch also features a screw-in caseback and is powered by the automatic SW200-1, with chronometer certification and a power reserve once fully wound of 38 hours.

The addition of the black rubber band on the new Squale 1521 Full Luminous Militaire watch ensures that it is fast drying whilst dipping in and out of the water. Alternatively, the steel Milanese-style mesh bracelet is superb for adding a vintage edge to the design and will make a great option when worn with more sophisticated attire. To receive more information on either of these two new Squale Full Luminous Militaire watches, you can call and speak to a member of our Jura Watches sales team today on 01335 453453.