Most “military” watches you’ll find online were never anywhere near a service member’s wrist. The Squale 2001 Marina Militare is one of the rare exceptions. Squale built it at the request of the Italian Navy, issued it only to Navy personnel starting in 2025, and kept it off the civilian market entirely. That changes on June 1st, when the brand opens up a run of 500 individually numbered pieces to anyone who wants one. Same watch the Navy got, same engraved caseback, same sequential serial. The only difference now is that you can actually buy it.
If you don’t know Squale, the short version is that they’ve been making Swiss dive watches out of Chiasso since 1959, and for decades they supplied cases and dials to dozens of other brands. The 2001 itself goes back to the 1960s, and it’s the watch that put Squale’s crown at 4 o’clock, which is still a brand signature. The heritage gets better from there. In 1972, Jacques-Yves Cousteau gave a Squale 2001 to the first officer of the Calypso during an Antarctic expedition. That’s the lineage this release is leaning on, and for once the story holds up.
On paper, the package is generous for the money. CHF 1,750 (about $1,965) gets you a 600m diver in 316L steel with a sapphire bezel insert, domed applied indexes, and a sunray blue dial spec’d to the Navy’s color. Squale throws in a steel bracelet alongside the signed rubber strap, all in a wooden box. The case was sized up specifically for this commission, and at 41.5mm wide with a 47.2mm lug-to-lug, it’s a big, honest diver. Squale also says the geometry won’t be reproduced again under its agreement with the Navy.
Here’s where I’d slow down. The movement is a Sellita SW200-1 in Elaboré grade, with a power reserve of roughly 38 hours. It’s reliable and easy to service, but 38 hours feels light in 2026, when plenty of watches in this territory are clearing 60 or 70. The other thing worth watching is the language. “Irreproducible,” “never to be replicated,” a configuration that “deserves to be shared.” That’s a lot of weight to hang on a 500-piece drop, and the provenance is interesting enough that it doesn’t need the push.
What I keep coming back to is the standard 2001 that’s been in Squale’s catalog all along. The real separation here is the Navy emblem on the caseback, the dedicated colorway, and the fact that this exact watch saw actual service issue. Whether that provenance justifies the buy-in depends entirely on how much the story means to you. For some collectors, that engraved caseback alone will settle it. I’m curious how many of the 500 end up on wrists that ever take it past 60 meters.
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Michael Peñate is an American writer, photographer, and podcaster based in Seattle, Washington. His work typically focuses on the passage of time and the tools we use to connect with that very journey. From aviation to music and travel, his interests span a multitude of disciplines that often intersect with the world of watches – and the obsessive culture behind collecting them.