How The Most Flawed Dive Watch Of 2024 Became The Best: The Truth About Squale's Master Titanium

So today I want to discuss or rather address a very controversial watch, a watch I've actually already reviewed but could have destroyed my relationship with the brand. But not only that, I think more importantly it reveals so much of what is wrong with the watch industry today. There's also a plot twist, a very big plot twist, well stay tuned no spoilers. One of the most disappointing releases of the year has turned into possibly one of the best. A lot to discuss here so let's get into it. Really TGV, another video on blasted squalet? Good god man, how many dive watches does one need? Very quick wristwatch check, I'm wearing my Amiga Deville, the little ellipse there that I did unboxing that I scored for only 400 bucks. Beautiful stunning watch. Anyway we're not talking about this, we're talking about the absolute antithesis of this. Earlier this year I reviewed this new release for 2024. And if you're new here, I've been a fan of them since year one, a decade ago. The watch in question was the fully titanium Squalet Master. I was very excited to check it out, after all it is their most iconic and influential watch design, if the word master didn't give it away. Kinda like what the Luminor is to Panerai, the Submariner is to Rolex, the Black Bay to Tudor and so on. As always, no watch is perfect, there was the typical mix of positives and negatives, surprisingly of which, more negatives than I expected in this particular review, half of which can be written off as personal preferences in fit, finish and the minutiae of functionality, or simply matters of taste in aesthetics. This is always the case with every watch reviewed. However, this time around there was one glaring drawback. Basically they had decided to put a butterfly clasp on a fully titanium bracelet, and to make matters worse, with no diver extension. Rather shocking considering this is the same brand that helped define, elevate and improve recreational divers of the 1950s into the professional level dive watches of the 60s and onwards, for the cream of the Swiss crop. Porca miseria, a butterfly clasp on a bracelet. It was just so incongruent with everything that the watch was intended for and what the brand is about. There was a rubber strap included with the watch, however it was like a band-aid on a gaping gunshot wound. For context, I only tend to watch the Italian watch channels on YouTube when it comes to content, for reasons I will discuss later, but to keep a long story short, this sentiment was echoed from the top of the boot to the very tip. It was just so off-brand for them, like Captain Picard using violence and not logical discussion to solve diplomatic situations first, or grating parmigiano on a piatto di pasta con vongole. So what was I to do, especially with such a capable and important release that coincided with 65 years of the brand? Well, I did what I always do. I voiced my opinion in a respectful but honest manner, along with all the other negatives. Now, this doesn't sound like some apocalyptic catastrophe, like an extinction-level event themed Busta Rhymes album, but bear in mind, in the countless watch reviews I have shared over the years, a handful of brands, of which, for the sake of trying to remain agent about it, I will not name and shame, but several brands have since blacklisted me for simply voicing my humble opinions about their watches. Now, I don't trash-talk brands to chase views. It's simply not worth the 30 cents per gazillion views in ad revenue. Neither am I fame-hungry to crave such attention with such salacious sensationalism and feel the need to be online all the time. But beyond that, most crucially, I understand there are human beings feeding their families behind almost every watch created. Therefore, they resort to the tried and tested and very dated means of marketing with the pay-to-play publication, which is, I think, a thing of the past. I mean, it should be at this point, and it is at this point, because we have this YouTube and social media that, you know, okay, there's a lot of pros and cons to social media, but at least you can find real reviews, not reviews from pictures. It's not by journalistically compromised dealers, you know, that are just trying to push you the watch or have some kind of ulterior motive. Long story short, if you've ever wondered why you don't see certain brands reviewed on the channel, this is precisely why. I recently wanted to visit a watch factory and review new timepieces from a particular luxury brand that will remain nameless. And in my conversations with them, I was told explicitly that it would only be possible on the condition that they have control of what I say and share, along with seeing the final cut before publishing any content. I naturally declined, and as a result, the whole thing kind of put me off ever wanting to cover this brand X in question, let alone even me considering buying one now. Did they order you to conceal the truth from us? So when you do see a brand covered on the channel, try to understand that it automatically means they are already open and willing to be analysed in a fair and honest manner, warts and all. Where exactly is all this control they're asserting? Where does this come from? I think it comes from the top. I think it comes from, we want to dictate our message. I have not written about a particular brand because they really strong-armed me into trying to tell the story their way, and it wasn't the way I saw it. That's the funny thing. If you write about watches for long enough, you have any self-respect, you will inevitably develop a blacklist. Not because you want to. So if I can't review a watch honestly with my humble opinion, then what's the point? What are we doing here? It's a complete waste of time otherwise. So after spending a week putting the video together and then tentatively publishing it, I genuinely thought to myself, well, they're never going to talk to me again. A few days passed and an email from them popped up in my inbox. I nervously checked it, with admittedly a split second of hesitancy, one I have not felt since awaiting my inevitable bad grades from school exams. You can read into that revealing bit of psychology yourself. They thanked me for taking the time to review their watch and attached a shipping label to return the sample they had kindly lent in. Insert a few emoji here. So I got on with my life, back to my day job outside of YouTube, then playing Command and Conquer, Long Jogs and binging X-Files or Star Trek in my time off. Another package from Switzerland arrived at my doorstep. I thought that's strange, I wasn't expecting anything. Did Rolex or Amiga finally decide to reward my loyal fandom with a gift perhaps? Of course not. But it was however something far more interesting. To my utter astonishment, the Squalimaster was back. I honestly thought at first it was some kind of mistake, but hold on a minute, what's that? With an EZ-Link style push to extend clasp? Meek ya. And they did this in only a few months? Now that is pure class and true dedication to the fans of the brand. Instead of wasting money on pay-to-play advertising via the uncaring fake watch publications, they instead put the money directly into improving the watch. Now that is how a true independent brand should work. You see, this kind of thing would take a more corporate or larger scale watch brand perhaps twice, three times or even a year to address and improve upon. When you launch a watch, it's typically no less than a year of, you know, R&D and prototypes and designing. Often can go into many years depending on how complex the watch is. When I was reviewing this watch, I have that in the back of my mind and I feel that it was such a missed opportunity because all this time, all this preparation, all this money invested, once it's launched, you can't redo it again. Just imagine for a moment they had included this superior extendable clasp in the initial release. At the end of the year, I'd do my top 10 list for the 10 best and the 10 worst and it would have been in there. Well, this was not the same cheaply made grade 2 titanium watch like Tudor use with their Pelagos. Don't get me wrong, I still adore the Pelagos or most bigger brands for that matter. This was constructed entirely in the far tougher, drastically more expensive to produce and source grade 5. I mean, who does that these days? Now, those entirely ignorant of how much it costs to produce a watch in Switzerland with a 1200 meter depth rating entirely out of this particular grade of titanium to this level of quality with an automatic escape valve will perhaps naturally complain at the price. But in all honesty, knowing what I know about designing watches and the production costs, I was actually expecting it to cost twice as much as it did. But value debate aside, this is undoubtedly a serious bit of kit. So when something as jarring is added to the mix, it makes it all the worse. Think of it like this. A historically important Michelin star chef creating a beautiful dessert but then sprinkling a pinch of, let's say, pigeon excrement on it. Would you still eat it? Exactly. The kind of oversight you would expect from a much lesser brand on AliExpress. Kind of like when you see your favourite movie star saying something incredibly moronic on twatter. Sorry, I mean Twitter. Or is it X now? God knows. Or for that matter, doing something off screen not befitting of the godlike pedestal that the carefully manicured movie iconography has elevated them to. The truth is, it's evident that Squally is run by passionate people, and not just another soulless corporate subsidiary trying to meet quarterly targets, and in a larger sense brands that are staffed by those who simply clock in and clock off when the day is done, with no care in the world where this is all going. I feel being able to take criticism on the chin like this in today's oversensitive online world, but also to promptly do something about it, just adds to the legendary status of what this brand is all about. Now while my initial review was not just critical of the clasp, but several other aspects of the triple layer dial, choice of faux patina that's verging on, but not quite the overcooked no time to die Amiga loom, this update has actually got me reconsidering the whole watch. Especially when you consider what they also shrewdly included in the shipment, their latest 1521 Marina Militare Limited Edition. While this new collectible watch celebrates, once again, their partnership with the Italian Navy, it is done extremely well, cleverly using that orange von Buren was first to utilise in the Diver, yes before Doxa, as a functional design motif to be more legible underwater. So I don't really need to review it. Collectors will snap it up in no time. I wouldn't be surprised if it's already sold out as I read these terribly written words. In this video, I prefer to concentrate or focus on the Master Titanium. I think it's a more important watch for the brand and it does feel, you know, I've got to be honest, 1521 Marina Militare, it does feel a little bit cash grabby. They should slow down a bit. They've got such a strong history, such a strong identity. Do we really need another limited edition? And I know, yeah, you're going to point the finger at me and the clue is in the word, right? I try and limit it to one or two a year. I don't do a limited edition every month, which it seems to happen with a lot of these brands. And in my opinion, it devalues the exclusivity. It devalues some of the strength of the brand. These limited editions, to me, they mean less and less. The more and more there are of them, you know? So when I first started on YouTube over a decade ago, talking about watches, even just the tabletop hands-only videos that I helped to introduce, was all seen as very nerdy, niche, and quite frankly, a little weird. This was before the industry plants, the watch wheeler dealers masquerading as enthusiasts, the endless bottom of the barrel vacuous investment BS, grey market hucksterism, and the near complete demise of independent watch journalism. No oversaturation of hype or algorithm-driven search engine specialists. Back then, me and Squirely made history together, as it was the first heritage watch brand ever to collaborate with a person, and prepare yourself to cringe, an influencer. I can't stand that term, but for lack of better expression. And over the years, I have co-designed three watches for them, along with occasionally acting as an independent consiglieri for them. No, not that type of consiglieri, it just means consultant in Italian. If they took my advice or not, was always their prerogative, but those collaborations came at a price. While the brand was certainly innovative and way ahead of its time by working with a person like me, especially in an era when brands still wanted only brick and mortar stores, let alone embracing unsocial media. And so inevitably, Squirely kind of became associated with me to some extent, even sparking rumours that I actually owned the brand. Yeah, I wish. I mean, you really gotta give the trolls points for creativity there. But as a result, I feel Squirely is not embraced as fairly as they deserve, beyond the gentry community. Which brings me onto Italian YouTube content, and why, in my opinion, it's far better. Now, they are absolutely enamoured with Squirely. There's hardly a week that goes by it's not naturally mentioned in conversation. I mean, it is a giant peninsula, so obviously divers are massively important to them. But in Italy, with any online platform, it has its own fair share of disagreements or pointless bickering in the comments. But on the whole, the camaraderie, sense of community, and level of respectfully honest journalistic integrity is way superior to the English-speaking shilltube watch world. Now, I'm not saying that Italy is the perfect place to live. Far from it. A lot of bureaucracy that you've also got to consider a third of the economy is like that. There's always going to be discrepancies between socioeconomic groups, right? What I'm talking about is general quality of life. Things like that you can't really measure, like sense of community. One part of the reason is the language barrier, helping to filter out a lot of the toxicity. Another reason is just societal cultural differences and the quality of life there, which both are complicated to get into, but you really have to live there or grow up there like me to truly understand. But lastly, historically, Italy was one of the first places in the world to have watch collectors and very active enthusiast communities decades before the internet. So if you've ever wondered why billionaire collectors like Sandro Frattini wore squale, now you know. And as a result, the romanticism and the if-you-know-you-know vibe of squale obviously goes a long way there. But I hope by being very open and transparent in this video, not only you get some insight into how I operate and how I think and discuss and explore watches and share it with you guys, but also a good example of how a brand should react to negative criticism or possibly a mistake, and use that as an opportunity to improve. A great example of a prestigious brand doing the right thing and why also they deserve to be widely recognized beyond just Switzerland, Italy and the stronghold of their fandom. Let me know what you guys think in the comments. Don't forget to like this video, especially if you want to see more free and independent content like this. I'll catch you in the next one. Onwards and upwards. Thank you for watching. Ciao.