Frequently Asked Questions
The original Matic is a big, burly 44mm diver with a famously tall domed crystal — beloved, but a lot of watch for a lot of wrists. The Matic S is the answer to everyone who loved the look but found it oversized. The case drops to 37.8mm (39.5mm across the bezel) at around 12.6mm thick and 47mm lug-to-lug, so it wears far more easily. Shrinking the case let Squale move the crown from 4 o'clock back to a symmetrical 3 o'clock, and they slimmed the domed crystal too, for a cleaner, lower profile. They also designed a new bracelet specifically for the slimmer case, plus two new straps — a lightweight Mosaic rubber and a HydroLeather that pairs rubber with water-resistant Italian leather. Same DNA, more refined silhouette.
A few reasons converging at once. First, timing: the whole hobby has swung back toward sub-40mm divers after a decade of giant watches, and the Matic S lands right in that sweet spot. Second, Squale has a loyal, slightly cult following — collectors rate the brand for fit, finish and that case-maker heritage, and the Matic case is one of their genuinely original designs rather than a homage. Third, value: a Swiss-made, 600m, sapphire-and-Sellita diver from a brand with this history sits well below what comparable Swiss divers ask. Add the new strap options and a more wearable size, and you get the watch that finally makes the Matic accessible to people who always admired it but couldn't pull off 44mm. That combination is exactly what's driving the chatter.
Both, and that's the whole point of the "S". It carries genuine dive credentials — 600m (60 ATM) water resistance, a screw-down crown, a unidirectional 120-click bezel for timing a dive, sapphire glass and Super-LumiNova for legibility in the dark. It would happily handle anything short of saturation diving. Worth knowing for the collectors: unlike a lot of dive watches in this price band, the Matic isn't a Submariner copy — it's drawn from Squale's own 1970s Squalematic design, so it has a face of its own. What the "S" adds is wearability. Squale kept the tool-watch substance and trimmed the bulk so it works under a shirt cuff on a Tuesday, not just on a wetsuit.
It's the real thing, and the history is deeper than most people expect. Squale was registered in Neuchâtel, Switzerland in 1959 by Charles von Büren, who'd already been making watch cases since the mid-1940s. Here's the part enthusiasts love: before Squale was a name on a dial, it was the case-maker behind some of the most famous dive watches ever — supplying cases to Blancpain, Doxa and Heuer, marked with that little shark logo. Freedivers Enzo Maiorca and Jacques Mayol wore Squale while setting world records. The brand went quiet during the quartz crisis and was revived under the Maggi family, who still run it. So when you buy a Matic S, you're buying into roughly seventy years of genuine underwater pedigree — not a logo bought off a shelf.
You can buy it right here — Starbuy is an authorised Squale distributor in Australia, so every Matic S is brand new, genuine, and arrives in original Squale packaging with the warranty card. That last part matters more than it sounds. A lot of the cheaper Squales floating around online ship from overseas, which usually means GST and import duty landing on you at the border, a couple of weeks' wait, and a real headache if anything ever needs attention under warranty — because you're posting your watch back across the world to sort it out. Buying from an authorised Australian dealer takes all of that off the table. Because we're authorised, your Matic S carries Squale's full two-year warranty, activated online with the six-digit serial number on the caseback, and any warranty support is handled here in Australia rather than shipped abroad. Orders go out free via Australia Post Express, usually within 1–3 business days from our Sydney base, and Sydney buyers can collect the same day from our Alexandria showroom. If you'd like to see one on the wrist before committing, you're welcome to come in.