Thanks to a generous friend, for a couple of decades I enjoyed game fishing off Lizard Island. Yes, I know, but that was then and yes, we religiously tagged and released. But my reason for recalling it here is that such exploits brought one into contact with, well, the sports-fishing community – scuba divers, boaties and what have you – whose life around the reef was spent half in the water.

As such the watch shops up in Cairns had a pretty good idea of what to stock. They barely bothered with anything other than Seiko or Citizen, for these were the watches the coastal pros wore, whether daytime, downtime or deep diving. One evening in the “Barn” on Lizard, where the crews gathered for a drink after a day on the reef, I did spot a battered Rolex Submariner, but that was a rarity.