Chapter 3 | Miami Dive: Frozen In Time

For this chapter of Miami Dive, we are handing the story to someone who knows dive watches from years of close observation and from real time in the water.

Roger Ruegger has spent more than 25 years around watches, dive watches and diving itself. He joined Lukas Müller and the Ocean Collective team in Florida and stepped straight into a world of current, cold water, movement and close encounters in open water. What makes Roger’s perspective so compelling is exactly that mix: the eye of a seasoned watch journalist, the instinct of an experienced diver and the excitement of someone still genuinely drawn to what the ocean can reveal.

We are very grateful to Roger for this beautiful piece and for the images he shared with us for this chapter. His words carry you right into the Gulf Stream and into moments that are hard to stage, harder to forget and well worth diving into.

Three Worlds, One Story

For more than 25 years, I have been a watch journalist, a dive watch collector and an equally passionate diver. Unsurprisingly, at the very center of these three overlapping circles in this imaginary Venn diagram is a website about dive watches, their history and evolution, and, most importantly, how they perform when actually used underwater, or while desk diving, if there happens to be no ocean around.

Think of it as something that started as a passion project and happy place that quickly evolved into an essential part of my professional career. Now imagine being asked to join a small team of marine biologists while getting to wear an embargoed dive watch, and you get straight to the top on at least two of my bucket lists.

I have obviously encountered large sharks in their natural habitat before, once in French Polynesia, and more recently in Costa Rica around Santa Catalina Island, but I had never been on a drift dive with sharks, nor did I, at least knowingly, get the chance to encounter a great white, tiger or bull shark while diving.

Also, I had never done freediving, which seemed to be the preferred mode of transportation for this project. So when I was asked by the CBP officer at Miami International Airport what I had planned to do during my stay, and whether I had a return ticket, I was at first not quite sure what to answer after a 10 hour flight. But “testing a mechanical dive watch while swimming with sharks on a business trip,” followed by the inevitable joke about potentially not needing a return ticket, seemed to do the trick that day.

The Team, The Rules, The Water

That also meant that I would finally get to meet the team from Ocean Collective, which had already arrived in Florida a couple of hours earlier. Lukas Müller I already had met as a guest on a panel discussion I hosted, but Svenja Rätzsch, Julian Hebenstreit, Lennart Vossgätter and Stefan Grabow would also be my dive buddies in the days to come.

The team from Fortis decided to stay behind in Switzerland, which was another indication that this was not going to be your average press trip.

Rules of Engagement

The rules of engagement were as clear as comprehensible: never take your eyes off, keep your distance, no sudden movements, and no bright colors. Obviously, these had all to do with diving with sharks, and were not the workplace etiquette for the days ahead of us.

In my case, these rules also meant no camera on the first dive, which made any attempt of taking a wrist shot underwater impossible. Now, for those of you imagining diving with sharks to be a heart pounding, adrenaline fueled rush, it is not, at least when done both professionally and responsibly.

Instead, it is much more about respect, awareness, and understanding the breathtakingly beautiful animal in front of you. In fact, there was not a single second I felt this was potentially dangerous when we were in the water. Still, you are getting very close to a true apex predator, and that understanding impacts everything.

Encounters Below the Surface

Thankfully, we ended up seeing a great hammerhead on our first dive, and several bull and lemon sharks followed after this incredible sight. There also was a brief encounter with at least one tiger shark, announcing itself by every other shark suddenly disappearing.

No great white was to be seen during our stay in Florida. And yes, we all felt the same disappointment, given their crucial role in maintaining the health and balance of ocean ecosystems.

Cold Water, Freediving and Missed Moments

Speaking of roles, I obviously came as prepared as possible, given the nature of this trip and the rather frosty temperatures at that time. I had already done a dive in January to have some backup material of the new Marinemaster M 44 underwater, and I also decided to add a regular scuba dive off the coast of Jupiter.

While I was able to take all the wrist shots and hands on videos of the watch on that dive, I apparently missed out on another tiger shark while constantly looking at the watch on my wrist at a depth of 25 meters.

And to my surprise, I also missed something else. As much as I like being able to spend a long time underwater, I now preferred the calm and focus I experienced while being in the water without a tank.

What I did not miss, however, and that brings me to the most challenging part of the entire project, was getting in and out of an open cell freediving wetsuit in the water of a harbor in Florida, while every media outlet reported about frozen lizards falling out of trees.

That was genuinely challenging. Much more than putting on a regular wetsuit on dry land, which already is the most unpleasant part about diving.

What Stays

The things that will stay with me forever are the five minutes I came up close with a great hammerhead, the effectiveness and determination I encountered on the surprisingly small boat, and the passion and professionalism of everyone involved.

As to the new Marinemaster M-44: I initially leaned towards the Black Resin version but observed myself being pulled to the Gravity Black after a couple of weeks. More importantly: while I was initially a bit skeptical about the DLC-coated bezel (and expected the Fortis Lock System to be a bit of an overkill), testing the 44-mm watch on multiple dives quickly showed that this is a very versatile tool watch that wears surprisingly compact on the wrist, thanks to a couple of very smart design decisions. Which just shows once again how important it is to get your hands on a watch before making a decision.

A Final Word

Our thanks again to Roger for taking us into this chapter of Miami Dive in his own words and through his own lens. One more chapter is still to come. Spoiler alert: next time, we go behind the scenes.