The Tick Tock Symphonette

For nearly two hundred years, watches from the Swiss company Longines has graced the wrists of the world’s most admired and respected people. Albert Einstein owned a Longines watch, so did Audrey Hepburn. Amelia Earhart and Howard Hughes were Longines aficionados, as are tennis legend Andre Agassi and actress Jennifer Lawrence.

I say this because … I need something small and intricate for a waycool macro photograph. The interior of a wristwatch – with all its gears and jewels and intricate mechanics – could be an award-winning macro image capture. That doesn’t mean that my previous macro captures are the equivalent of chopped liver. I’ve photographed coins and rings with this Nikkor medical macro lens – but I want something with more depth and detail. Something that clearly has surfaces and textures and compartments that only God or a horologist would normally see.

So … I need a Swiss watch. And since my budget right now doesn’t include a Rolex, I’ll see if there’s a Longines watch available. Or, at least, the internal guts of a Longines watch. I mean, I could purchase a vintage Longines watch, crack it open, take the picture, and then try to put the watch back together to the point where it tells the correct time more than twice a day.

Actually, I have a better idea. I’ll just go on eBay, purchase a broken Longines movement – you know, the kind that are offered “for parts” – and photograph that.

And here’s what came in the mail.

That’s tiny. I think Barbie could use that on her wrist. I swear I’ve seen tadpoles bigger than the gears on this watch.

Okay. Let’s see if I can get a good macro shot out of this. All I need to do at this point is securely fasten the watch motor to a backing board, and then focus-stack several shots to capture depth and detail.

I took 40 photos of the wristwatch motor at 1:1 magnification, using a focus rail mount to move the camera forward in tiny increments. I then took the 25 best, sharpest consecutive images, and focus-stacked them.

And this is what came out.

Holy horology, Batman!! You can see the synthetic ruby jewels clear as day. You can see the hairspring and the balance wheels and the gears and the serial numbers and the engravings …

Yeah, this is going into the short pile, and I’ll fight anyone who tells me otherwise.

In case you hadn’t noticed … I’m SERIOUSLY digging this medical macro lens.

This is fun.