The challenge
Coin Vigilante was making 100 numbered Bitcoin Halving 2024 watches and wanted extremely accurate CGI images of the new design: front, side and back views, a close-up of the caseback, and close-ups of the details that make the watch unique, the engraved "Block Height: 840,000" and "Bitcoin Halving 2024" and the custom orange Bitcoin seconds hand. Carlos also wanted to see it on an orange silicone strap with a silver COIN VIGILANTE buckle, as an add-on for his customers.
The movement was the big job. We had built similar ones, but not this one, so it had to be rebuilt part by part, around 40 hours of modelling before any image. Carlos needed everything by mid-January 2024, and the studio was closed from 24 December to 2 January.
The process
We worked through the open questions with Carlos: whether to follow the stated dimensions or the photos where they disagreed, whether the engraving sat on the glass, how deep the case steps went. The brief marked which areas were polished and which were brushed, and the caseback was changed to read "001/100".
Just before delivery, Carlos called one evening: a part of the movement had to sit lower to show what was underneath. We had no picture of those parts, so we modelled them from references and spent a few more hours before delivering. The renders were in his folder on 12 January 2024.
In February he came back for three new editions of the same watch: all black with a black caseback and silver seconds hand, rose gold on a black rubber strap, and silver on an orange strap. The text changed to "TRANSPARENCY", the block height and edition number came off, and at his request we raised the outer ring so it touches the hour marks, as on the real watch.
The outcome
Each edition got six images at the same angles as the black watch, with straps sized so the front views line up side by side, plus a rim-lit reveal image and story and banner crops of every render. The last files went out in June 2024.
