Our story begins when I was out detecting on Sunday, September 30th the wet sand on Miami Beach. On that day, I could not go into the water, due to the extreme surf conditions, but I still managed to score that nice “mother’s ring”. Half way through the hunt a hotel worker came up to me and told me about a “rich old couple where the guy had lost a gold Rolex 3 days ago”. I asked him where and he pointed to basically to the entire area off of one of the life guard stations. I also asked them if they had left contact information and he said that they did not. Even though I knew it would be a Sisyphean task to try to find the Rolex under those extreme conditions I went out. After 10-15 minutes of getting slammed around I knew what I was doing was dangerous and stopped. I vowed to return to that spot at the 1st available opportunity. I took note of the area and the exact life guard station before I continued my wet sand hunt. I kept thinking throughout my entire hunt of the opportunity I would have to upgrade the stainless and gold Rolex I found 2 years ago to an all gold one. I was very anxiously anticipating being able to get out and get it and thought to myself that "if I found one without know it was there then I should be able to find a knowingly lost one". On Sunday, October 7th I went to this beach and had a dry sand hunt since the surf was pounding but also to recon the target area.
In fact, I obsessed about it so much that I woke up twice in the middle of the night dreaming about finding it until I was finally able to go out and hunt for it on Thursday, October 12th. I had monitored the surf, tide and wind patterns every day repeatedly on my phone apps and it was only until Wednesday afternoon (October 11th) that the surf had calmed down. There would be a few days of calmer surf that would allow a hunt for it. The low tide was also in the afternoon so I would have to go after work. I really had to time it with the low tide as were are in King high tides and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to work any deeper water otherwise. Merlin was charged and I loaded up all my equipment into my truck Thursday morning before going to work. I asked my boss to leave early and he gave me the green light.
It was time to leave and as I was driving over to the beach I was feeling an airy uneasiness in my stomach which I identified as “butterflies” - just like an athlete before a big game! I was out and hunting in the water 3 hours before low tide. I made a visual mark of the area I would work; 30-40 yards north and south of the lifeguard station and up to 80-90 yards offshore across to and past the sandbar. I began in a perpendicular to the shore gridding pattern but after about 20 minutes I realized it was too deep to make it across to the sand bar. So I then started working parallel from the shoreline back and forth, back and forth going out a little bit more each time. There are no markers you can use to guide when you’re hunting like this since you are not seeing beach chairs, umbrellas, buildings, huts and other items so I was very careful to overlap as a I went out. After about an hour and half, the tide had lowered enough so that I could reach over to the sand bar switch over to the preferred perpendicular to shore gridding pattern. I was now able to grid up and down using markers on the beach. I dug every sound during my hunt.
At bout the 3 hour mark, I noticed another pirate enter the water about 100 yards north of me and I got apprehensive.
I switched over from working south of the life guard station and I went over to the northern boundary of my target area to lay claim and show this pirate that this area was mine! 
He was still a ways north and as I saw him hunt I was relieved to see that he hunted north away from me. 
After completing the target area and no Rolex I expanded the search are north and south. After hunting for 5 hours it was getting dark and I knew that the Rolex wasn’t there. Could it have been found in the 3 days after it was lost? Maybe. Could I have missed it? Another maybe. Could it have been sanded in beyond Merlin’s hearing capabilities? Possible but doubtful. Could the hotel worker have made a bet with his buddy on that day? – “Let’s see if this fool will go in that rough surf if we tell him there’s a gold Rolex out there”? Possible, but I took his story to be genuine. I don't think I'll be returning to hunt specifically for it again. I gave it my best shot and it didn't happen for me. But If I am by there again I may swing the coil a bit longer and more carefully around there. Onto the next Rolex! 
In fact, I obsessed about it so much that I woke up twice in the middle of the night dreaming about finding it until I was finally able to go out and hunt for it on Thursday, October 12th. I had monitored the surf, tide and wind patterns every day repeatedly on my phone apps and it was only until Wednesday afternoon (October 11th) that the surf had calmed down. There would be a few days of calmer surf that would allow a hunt for it. The low tide was also in the afternoon so I would have to go after work. I really had to time it with the low tide as were are in King high tides and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to work any deeper water otherwise. Merlin was charged and I loaded up all my equipment into my truck Thursday morning before going to work. I asked my boss to leave early and he gave me the green light.
It was time to leave and as I was driving over to the beach I was feeling an airy uneasiness in my stomach which I identified as “butterflies” - just like an athlete before a big game! I was out and hunting in the water 3 hours before low tide. I made a visual mark of the area I would work; 30-40 yards north and south of the lifeguard station and up to 80-90 yards offshore across to and past the sandbar. I began in a perpendicular to the shore gridding pattern but after about 20 minutes I realized it was too deep to make it across to the sand bar. So I then started working parallel from the shoreline back and forth, back and forth going out a little bit more each time. There are no markers you can use to guide when you’re hunting like this since you are not seeing beach chairs, umbrellas, buildings, huts and other items so I was very careful to overlap as a I went out. After about an hour and half, the tide had lowered enough so that I could reach over to the sand bar switch over to the preferred perpendicular to shore gridding pattern. I was now able to grid up and down using markers on the beach. I dug every sound during my hunt.
At bout the 3 hour mark, I noticed another pirate enter the water about 100 yards north of me and I got apprehensive.
I switched over from working south of the life guard station and I went over to the northern boundary of my target area to lay claim and show this pirate that this area was mine! He was still a ways north and as I saw him hunt I was relieved to see that he hunted north away from me. After completing the target area and no Rolex I expanded the search are north and south. After hunting for 5 hours it was getting dark and I knew that the Rolex wasn’t there. Could it have been found in the 3 days after it was lost? Maybe. Could I have missed it? Another maybe. Could it have been sanded in beyond Merlin’s hearing capabilities? Possible but doubtful. Could the hotel worker have made a bet with his buddy on that day? – “Let’s see if this fool will go in that rough surf if we tell him there’s a gold Rolex out there”? Possible, but I took his story to be genuine. I don't think I'll be returning to hunt specifically for it again. I gave it my best shot and it didn't happen for me. But If I am by there again I may swing the coil a bit longer and more carefully around there. Onto the next Rolex! 
2 high tides had come & gone since then. And it was just too immense of an area of acreage, like a needle in a hay-stack 
