Thanks for the kind comments. Indeed I have been collecting watches for a long time. And shooting them is great fun.
Jack, yes, the traditional watch shot is 10 past 2, and for Lange, their product shots are 10 to 2. Same smiley effect...The session was rather hurried in a dealer studio, one hour, fired some 49 frames. Little details like getting the cotton fibers, cleaning smudges, fine tuning the positioning, making sure our reflections are not seen from the bezel were dispensed with.
I have tried Helicon Focus with my 1d3, but found the process a bit too tiresome.
David, indeed ALS is a fine watch, and a great company. I have had the pleasure of working with them, as founder of their fan club for more than a decade. You are correct that shooting small, shiny objects are a difficult task...and the crystal reflects the light source causing haze...but in may paid shots with these watches are done with the crystals removed to eliminate reflections. The more difficult reflections to rid of are those which arise from the curved bezels.
Here are two more watch pics, from another earlier session with the H3Dii-31 with the HC 4/120 macro. Lighting is one very large softbox, lit by a ProFoto monobloc, overhead the table. No processing other than Phocus out, CS, resize, watermark, save.
Apologies for dirt on the back of the strap.
100% crop.