A H E M I S P H E R E S S U P P L E M E N T
WATCH GU I DE
“He had me pinned underneath the boat with a
boat hook puncturing my chest,” says Sco Cassell
of one of his hairier moments on a mission to film
shark poachers off the Mexican coast. “As he was
poking me he was trying to bring me up, so I took
up my fighting knife, slid up the pole and jabbed it
into his hand, which allowed me to get away.”
Around Mexico’s Baja peninsula, where Cassell
operates his covert recon missions, he is not a
popular man. His films of people poaching sharks
and other endangered species have
landed the perpetrators with heavy
prison sentences. So he was happy
to get away from the guy with the
boat hook, right?
“My knife lodged in his hand, so
he got my $200 knife and I only got
his $5 hook. I’m still mad about
that—I want my knife,” he says bluntly.
For a 52-year-old former Special Forces sniper,
combat diving specialist and counter-terrorism
operative, Cassell is a surprisingly placid character.
In fact, he’s charming, and has an almost evangelical
fervor for his true love—the sea and the life in it.
“The oceans are in the process of dying,” he says.
“We’re on an extinction event: we’re watching
temperatures shi , ocean acidification, systems
collapsing. We’ve only explored about 1 percent of
the ocean, and in that 1 percent we see terrible
things happening, so what’s happening in the
other 99 percent? We don’t know, but what we do
see is very alarming.”
Cassell, who grew up scuba diving and admits to
being more comfortable under the sea than above
it, has made numerous underwater films, and led
the team that was the first to film a giant squid in
its natural environment. He’s even built his own
submarine to continue exploring and perform
scientific missions. Like any diver, he relies on his
watch, particularly in no-light conditions—both at
depth and when making his
nigh ime escape from poachers.
He has worked with Luminox,
an American company that
specializes in luminescent watches
thanks to markers on the dial and
hands filled with tritium, a glowing
radioactive gas, to develop his ideal
timepiece. Able to be read at depths where sunlight
never penetrates, it’s become a crucial part of his
kit. “At an exact point in time, usually 2.30am, I’ll
swim out on a compass course, count my kicks so I
know how far I’m traveling, and surface in the
right place at the right time to be picked up. The
next landfall is 75 miles away—that’s howmuch I
rely on this watch.”
Cassell willingly describes serving alongside
heroes—so does he consider himself one? “No, I’m
kind of a regular guy. I’ve rubbed elbows with
heroes but I’m not one.”
With the help of a rugged diving watch, former Special Forces operative
Scott Cassell is taking the fight to Mexico’s shark poachers
CASIO
G-SHOCK
GW-9400
Casio’s G-Shock watches
are built to withstand high
G-forces and tough
situations, making them
extremely popular among
military personnel. This
all-action model includes
compass data, an altimeter,
thermometer and 200m
water resistance.
gshock.com
BREMONT
SUPERMARINE
S2000
Bremont’s cases are
hardened through industrial
processes to 2,000
Vickers—nine times harder
than normal watch cases.
This diving watch is also
sealed for antimagnetic
protection and waterproof to
an extraordinary 2,000m.
bremont.com
2
1
TOUGH TIMES
“I’VE RUBBED
ELBOWSWITH
HEROES BUT
I’MNOT ONE.”
TWO MORE
TOUGH GUY
TIMEPIECES
