Texas Entrepreneur Takes Extreme Measures to Rescue $60K …

A Texas entrepreneur took extraordinary measures to get back his $60,000 Patek Phillippe watch retrieved after accidentally dropping it into Lake Austin.

In an Instagram reel posted on Thursday (August 21), content creator and watch enthusiast Mike Nouveau explained that his friend, real estate tech businessman Colin Brady, lost his timepiece while wakesurfing. After the incident, Brady recruited a dive team, Lake Travis Scuba Search and Recovery, to locate the watch.

“Feeling like a bit of an idiot, but it’s a sport watch. It’s called the Patek Aquanaut. It isn’t supposed to be in the water?” Brady jokingly asked in the reel below.

“It flew off while I was wake surfing. Now it’s 22 feet deep in Lake Austin,” he continued. “So I’ve got divers coming out in the morning. They’re gonna scan the whole area. I see it as gone, but how cool would it be if they could get that back for me?”

On the boat, an older diver was determined to find the watch while Brady stayed onboard and tried to give the man directions. While the diver resurfaced “empty-handed,” more divers arrived the following day, with Brady having “high hopes” that the watch would be found.

One diver explained that the team would set up “boundary lines” and attempt to cover the “entire bottom” of the lake between those lines. While the team initially didn’t have luck on their rescue mission, a diver named Brian miraculously stumbled upon the Patek, which, surprisingly, was still ticking.

Back onboard, the divers surprised a relieved Brady with their discovery.

“Last-ditch effort,” a diver explained about using a fishing line to seize the watch. “Four, fifth time ’round there, it was, boom. Twenty feet from the flag.”

“It’s only lost until we find it,” the lead diver signed off.

Brady probably won’t wakesurf with a five-figure watch again, but at least the adventure had a happy ending.

ComplexCon returns to Las Vegas on October 25–26, 2025, with over 300 brands and live performances by Young Thug, YEAT & Friends, Peso Pluma, Central Cee, Ken Carson, and more. Get your tickets now.