Watches are like lenses - you can't have too many

A current "show your watch" thread on dpreview, and the fact that my wife just returned from a trip to Switzerland and surprised me with a new Mondaine watch, prompted me to take this photo of a few of my time pieces. I've always had a fondness for watches in the same way I have for cameras. They're both basically devices that serve only one purpose, yet it's interesting to see how different their form and function can be.

The watches in this photo, from left to right, are: Mondaine, Hamilton circa 1950, Movado, Ebel, and Avalon by Citizen.

Having shot hundreds of small products for a catalog in the early 80's, I realize how difficult it is in taking a photo of multiple items, each with their own reflective properties. This was just a quick photo and not intended to be a masterpiece. As the other photo shows, I shot this outdoors under natural light (overcast morning) and used a Photoflex 32" White/Translucent LiteDisc to diffuse the light and control the reflections, as best as I could. Photo shot with K20D and FA 100mm Macro.

(Click on the thumbnail to see a larger image file)