As Mark Watson III, one of the youngst international business CEOs in Bermuda, settled into his new office overlooking the blue waters of Hamilton harbour a workman on the ground floor scraped away the PXRE logo from the main entrance on Pitts Bay Road.

Earlier in the day Bermuda reinsurer PXRE had been consigned to history, its final business a conference call at 9 a.m. yesterday explaining its $11.6 million second-quarter loss.

In its place is Argo Group, a brand new insurance/reinsurance entity created from the merging of Texas-based US insurer Argonaut Group and what remained of PXRE after it suffered devastating loss claims of around $800m from the 2005 hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

Mr. Watson, 43, is president and CEO of Argo Group. He was president of Argonaut Group as it completed the merger deal.

There isn't much in his office at the moment, bare furniture, a computer and a small model yacht hull. If he spins his chair to face out over the harbour however, Mr. Watson can see a full-size Swan 42 yacht identical to his own. It is a reminder that home comforts will soon follow him to Bermuda.

His wife and three children will shortly be joining him as he settles in to life in Bermuda, a place he has grown familiar with during the past 20 years through business trips.

Argonaut Group secured much of its reinsurance coverage from Bermuda operators, and this will continue although Argo Group now operates its own reinsurance vehicle Peleus Re.

With capital of $1.6 billion Argo Group represents a significant new player for Bermuda.

Mr. Watson said: "We are not another reinsurance organisation based in Bermuda, we are very different from other companies headquarterd here. Our business is primarily insurance - 85 percent casualty and 15 percent property."

He sees Peleus Re as being "one of several reinsurers" for Argo Group's US business. Now the Bermuda move has added an international dimension to the company, it is also intended to seek out new business opportunies within the US and overseas.

Having studied law, Mr. Watson had an early immersion into the world of reinsurance through his father's insurance holding company Titan. When that company went public in the early 1990s and then was twice sold, Mr. Watson faced uprooting from the southern states to the colder climes of Minnesota.

But he stayed in Texas after acquantancies on the board at Argonaut Group invited him to join the board. His idea for the business to become a specialty company was quickly taken up and he was appointed CEO to guide the strategy.

The Argonaut company logo at the time resembled a sinking ship, in 2002 that seemed the company's reality as legacy exposure to the 1990s workers' compensation issue in California.

"Someone asked me if I realised I was the captain of a sinking ship, I told them I was a U-boat commander - we were already underwater," said Mr. Watson.

Argonaut Group's team of managers - the same team still in place today, Mr. Watson points out - turned things around and the company's compound net growth premium is 35 percent for the past seven years.

The Argonaut logo is also now a sleek sailing yacht. Mr. Watson happens to be a passionate yachtsman.

Looking to the future for Argo Group he sees possible further acqusitions, although gives no clue where and when they might come.

Despite his youthfulness, Mr. Watson points out he has been in the insurance/reinsurance business for 20 years with the last 10 in a leadership role. He is comfortable at the helm of Argo Group and its $5bn worth of assets.

After Titan, Argonaut Group and now with a reinsurer called Peleus, one wonders which Greek mythological figure Mr. Watson most identifies with?

He answers quickly, the god of wine Bacchus - albeit using the Roman name for the Greek figure. In Bermuda he is likely to find many of his new neighbours raising a glass in agreement.