Watch Photography With a 1960s Camera
My first experience using a Rolleiflex to capture the beauty of vintage timepieces
Mechanical watches and analogue photography have a lot in common. Much like the way a watch keeps time, a mechanical film camera uses gears and springs to measure the fraction of time needed to record an image, all without requiring batteries.
These similarities were what led me to watches for the first time: coming from a background in engineering and photography, these small and intricate objects fascinated me. From there, I went down the rabbit hole trying to of learning their history, eventually coming to photographing them. I usually photograph watches with a digital camera and edit the pictures thoroughly to get a perfect image but this time I decided to challenge myself: what if I tried to photograph watches, using my favourite old film camera?
When it comes to cameras, the Rolleiflex 2.8F is arguably one of the best mechanical examples ever made. Introduced in 1960, it was the culmination of years of development by the brand, and it became the choice of several artists from that period (Helmut Newton, David Bailey, Richard Avedon and Vivian Mayer, just to name a few). It had a sharp and bright 80mm lens, compact dimensions and a silent shutter, perfect for portraits and press…
