The challenge
Louis Cartel needed images of a skeleton watch with an octagonal bezel in three finishes, black, silver and rose gold. The brief listed 37 catalog images and 4 simple prop images, in 2:3 for the website and 4:5 for Instagram, plus on-wrist images. They had to sit next to the watches already in the catalog, at the same size and on the same background.
The lighting reference was Patek Philippe: open, even light that keeps every detail visible without heavy contrast. Ben, who ran the project for Louis Cartel, checked every part against photos of the real watch and the manufacturer's drawings, from the width of the bezel to the depth of the screws.
The process
The model went through four versions. The notes in the revision slides covered the case, lugs, crown, caseback, strap, hands and markers: a narrower bezel, softer corners on the inner octagon, thinner skeleton lines, a deeper lume on the hands. The movement got its own finishing plan: sunburst brushing on the plate, a different direction on the centre bridge, radial brushing on the gears, ruby jewels, and screws never in the same finish as the bridges.
From February to April 2026, we worked through the images with Ben in long live sessions. They set the screws deeper and made them silver, kept the brushing on the movement cover only, gave the movement its own light, made two small diamonds visible, deepened the logo engraving on the buckle and turned the black watch's hands gunmetal.
The outcome
The last session was on 10 April 2026. By then the black, silver and rose gold watches had the same length on the canvas as the other catalog watches, the background matched the website, and the on-wrist images were done in all three finishes.
Ben said at the end that the job had been extremely difficult. After one session, where the lighting of the silver watch was fixed live, he suggested a sped-up recording of it would make a good before-and-after post.
