Squale x Drass Galeazzi Artiglio Limited Edition: 100 Years of Underwater Engineering in a 39.5mm Diver

Squale has no shortage of genuine diving history, but the story behind the new Galeazzi Artiglio reaches well beyond watches.

Created with DRASS Galeazzi, the new limited edition marks 100 years since Roberto Galeazzi patented his pressure-resistant spherical diving structure in 1926, an invention that helped open up depths that were extraordinarily difficult to reach with the technology of the period. Five years after the first Squale x Galeazzi collaboration, the partnership returns with a very different watch, and only 500 individually numbered pieces will be made. 

This is also the second chapter of the Squale x DRASS Galeazzi partnership. Their first collaboration arrived five years ago, also as a 500-piece limited edition and subsequently sold out. For 2026, the idea returns in a very different watch with a functioning moisture indicator built into the dial. Squale is again making 500 individually numbered pieces. 

That moisture indicator is the detail that really separates the Artiglio from another historically themed dive watch. Squale calls it the Wet Indicator, and it revives an old professional-diving solution designed to warn the wearer if moisture has entered the case. It gives the watch a direct link to the equipment-first thinking behind the history it is celebrating.

The Artiglio story

In 1926, Roberto Galeazzi patented a spherical structure designed to withstand the immense pressure encountered beneath the surface. That principle would later be used in equipment including his Bathyscaphic Tower, allowing observers to descend while protected from the surrounding water pressure.

Galeazzi's work became particularly associated with the recovery operation surrounding the wreck of the SS Egypt, which lay at around 130 metres in the English Channel. The ship had sunk in 1922 carrying gold, silver and other valuable cargo, and the salvage operation became one of the most celebrated underwater recoveries of the period. Squale's own centenary project records the recovered treasure as including more than a thousand gold bars, hundreds of thousands of gold sovereigns and dozens of tonnes of silver.

The Artiglio name comes from the vessel and operation associated with that work. It gives this watch a much more specific historical foundation than a general reference to maritime exploration.

Squale and DRASS Galeazzi first worked together on a watch in 2021, producing 500 examples. That model was considerably larger and more overtly professional in character. For the centenary, Squale has taken a different route, concentrating more of the specification into a smaller case rather than simply recreating what came before.

A 600m diver at 39.5mm

The dimensions are probably the first part of the new Artiglio that will matter in everyday ownership.

The brushed 316L stainless-steel case measures 39.5mm across, 47mm lug-to-lug and 12.6mm thick, rising to 13.2mm when the flat sapphire crystal is included. Despite those relatively restrained dimensions, water resistance is rated to 600 metres / 60 ATM, with a screw-down crown and screw-in engraved caseback.

That combination is notable because serious depth ratings have historically tended to arrive inside equally serious amounts of steel. Here, the proportions are much closer to a watch that can comfortably be worn away from the water.

Squale has explored the same idea elsewhere with models such as the Matic S: high water resistance does not automatically require a very large case. The Artiglio pushes that point particularly well because 600 metres is far beyond what almost any owner will personally require, yet the watch itself remains under 40mm.

The case finishing helps stop it looking too utilitarian, with brushed surfaces broken up by polished bevels rather than a uniformly matte exterior. The unidirectional bezel uses a flat K1 glass insert in the same Pantone 295U blue as the dial, with BGW9 Super-LumiNova markings.

The Wet Indicator is the interesting bit

Just above six o'clock sits a small circular display that looks almost like another piece of dial furniture.

It is actually an internal humidity-detection disc. If moisture enters the watch, the Wet Indicator changes colour, providing a visible warning that the case's water-resistant integrity may have been compromised.

The technology makes much more sense when viewed in historical context. Before modern electronic pressure-testing equipment became commonplace, a professional diver needed a straightforward way of knowing whether the watch being relied upon underwater was still dry inside. Moisture indicators gave that information directly on the dial.

It is an old idea, but not a decorative one.

That is what makes its return here particularly effective. Squale could have referenced early professional diving watches through typography, colour or an old logo. Instead, it has revived something that still performs the same basic job it was originally designed to do.

The rest of the dial has sensibly been kept relatively clean around it. Applied domed markers use BGW9 Super-LumiNova, while the orange minute hand brings stronger contrast against the deep Pantone blue. The DRASS Galeazzi diving-helmet logo is not printed directly onto the dial either; it sits on the underside of the sapphire crystal, producing a subtle floating effect above everything underneath.

That layering gives the historical branding a presence without forcing the logo and Wet Indicator onto the same visual plane.

A familiar movement underneath

Inside is the ETA 2824-2 Elaboré, configured without a date.

The calibre runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour, uses 25 jewels and provides around 42 hours of power reserve. It also offers both manual winding and stop-seconds alongside automatic winding.

There are newer automatic movements with substantially longer reserves, but the 2824-2 makes sense in this particular watch. It is familiar, proven and widely serviceable, while the interesting engineering story is happening elsewhere in the Artiglio.

Going no-date was also the right choice. There is already plenty happening around six o'clock with the Wet Indicator, while the floating Galeazzi logo adds another layer above the dial. A date aperture would have added information the design did not really need.

Two different ways to wear it

The Artiglio arrives on a sand-coloured microfibre strap, which immediately pulls the design towards the historical side of its personality. Against the blue dial and orange minute hand, it has a slightly utilitarian, equipment-like feel without resorting to deliberately distressed steel or heavily aged lume.

A second Pantone 295U blue rubber strap with Squale's Mosaic texture is included. That version feels much more contemporary and is the obvious choice if the watch is genuinely going to spend time in the water.

Squale has also put more thought than usual into the presentation. The watch comes with a canvas and microfibre travel pouch, a deliberately aged-looking presentation box and a bronze commemorative medal carrying the Squale and Galeazzi diving logos.

Most of the overt historical storytelling therefore stays around the watch rather than being piled onto it.

More than an anniversary dial

The Squale Galeazzi Artiglio VONDSSGZBL.MI is limited to 500 individually numbered pieces, matching the production of the first collaboration. Squale lists the launch price at CHF 1,590, €1,890 and $1,990.

It would have been easy to make a 100th-anniversary model by taking an existing diver, adding a commemorative engraving and choosing a suitably historical colour.

The Artiglio is more considered than that.

The 39.5mm case makes a 600m dive watch unusually wearable. The no-date ETA keeps the mechanical side straightforward. The K1 bezel, blue dial and orange hand give it enough visual identity without overwhelming the proportions, while the Wet Indicator provides a genuine technical connection to early professional diving equipment.

That last point is what makes the whole watch work.

The indicator is historical because professional divers once relied on technology like it, but it has not been turned into a purely nostalgic detail. It still detects moisture today.

A century after Galeazzi was developing equipment to make the depths more accessible, Squale has built a watch around the same basic instinct: if a piece of equipment is going underwater, knowing whether it is still doing its job matters.