Colin Brady

Colin Brady, the 29-year-old tech CEO of a real estate firm, has recently gone viral after an Instagram Reel from vintage watch expert Mike Nouveau documented the process of how Colin hired a team of divers to retrieve his $60,000 (£44,365.57) Patek Philippe watch he lost while wakeboarding.

Background on Colin Brady

In his LinkedIn profile, Colin describes himself as the CEO of Startup, a real estate company. Before that, he founded the company Reclaim in 2019, which is defined as 'a tool that helps users take back control of their data.'

Moreover, Colin's Reclaim also leveraged emerging privacy regulations such as GDPR and, more recently, CCPA to empower individuals to reclaim their data from organisations that retain it.

He also served in various associate roles for Quake Capital Partners and Collins Family Ventures.

Colin's educational background included a bachelor's degree in finance at Texas A&M University, as well as a related summer program at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

More on the Wakeboarding Incident

In a video posted to Instagram by Mike Nouveau, he noted that Brady was approaching the 'acceptance' phase of grief when he unexpectedly made one final attempt to recover it following his wakeboarding incident.

'My friend lost his $60,000 Patek Philippe watch at the bottom of [Lake Austin] while wake surfing... and what he does next most people would never do,' Nouveau said in the video.

The incident, which happened at Lake Austin, resulted in what Brady calls a 'five-figure loss' and made him 'feel like an idiot' as the watch was lost 22 feet below.

'It's a sports watch... It's called the Patek Aquanaut,' Brady says in the viral clip, adding that the timepiece is 'supposed to be in the water.'

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Divers to the Rescue

To recover the lost wristwatch, the startup's co-founder enlisted a group of professional divers to comb through the 1,599-acre lake located five miles west of downtown Austin.

'So I've got divers coming in the morning. They're going to scan the whole area,' he said. 'I see it as gone, but how cool would it be if they could get that back for me?'

On the initial search of the area where Colin said the incident happened, divers returned empty-handed.

'Looks like we came up empty-handed today. Going to try again with a larger team as soon as they can come out. Let's hope it's still there - got high hopes,' he added.

Discovery and Recovery

Undeterred, Brady came back with a larger team—this time four professional divers—to make another attempt.

After spending an entire day combing the area, now with boundary lines mapped around the spot where the watch was believed to have fallen, the divers ultimately discovered it roughly 20 feet from a marker flag Brady had set as a reference point.

'No! What! Oh my God!' Brady exclaimed when the divers revealed they had found the watch.

For context, the Patek Philippe Aquanaut is designed to endure water pressure at depths of up to 30 meters, or about 100 feet.

Details About the Patek Philippe Aquanaut

The Patek Philippe Aquanaut is a premium luxury sports watch introduced in 1997 as a more accessible alternative to the iconic Nautilus. With its rounded octagonal bezel, embossed checkerboard dial, and durable rubber (or optional metal) strap, it artfully blends rugged functionality with refined Swiss watchmaking.

Most models boast impressive water resistance rated at 120 m (12 bar), a rarity among Patek Philippe timepieces—the stainless steel Aquanaut ref. 5167A-001, featuring a time-and-date display, typically retails around US $68,400 (£50,576.75).

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