We live in the times where we dont get access to all the watches we want in the shops, and we unfortunately cant many times, even try the watches on the wrist when we are buying them. That's when we resort to online platforms to see the photos of the watch, video reviews, wrist shots and real life photos to gauge and decide how large or small the watch wears, and if it will be the right fit for us.
I get asked many times about how do the watches wear so well on my wrist shots despite the fact that I have smaller(ish) wrist measuring at 6.5", especially when the same viewers see the watch on others' wrist shots having a similar size, but the watches always seem to flare out of their wrist.
So what is it that changes the way the same watch wears so differently on similar sized wrists, when the poster is different?
Ready to know the reason?
Well, its neither the watch nor the wrist..... its the poster.... or let's be more specific. It's the camera, and the perspective!
Wrist shots are taken mostly from mobile phone camera that are many times only few (or a couple of) inches away from the watch when the photos are taken. These tiny mobile cameras particularly when they are only a few inches away from the object/watch, show the worst distortions in the photo and make the watch look much larger, and to be flaring out of the wrist, when it in real life, it isn't. This happens because the watch due to its case thickenss is relatively closer to the camera lens, compared to the wrist which is a bit further away from the camera (the closer the object is to the camera lens, the higher the camera distortion, and at very close distances, every cm of distance makes difference).
See the below photos for example. The first photo is taken with the same mobile phone camera but with camera a few feet away, which makes the watch look like a perfect fit for my wrist. The second photo shows the same watch on my wrist and the same camera, just a few inches away, and in that photo, the watch can be seen to be appearing to be flaring out of my wrist (see the upper lug of the watch and how far it seems from the edge of my wrist) to the point where you'd think that the watch is too large for my wrist.
So first of all, don't believe in everything you see on the internet, especially the wrist shots when the photo is taken too close up. And secondly, if you find your watches to be too large on your wrist shots, move the camera 12" or more away from the watch and take another wrist shots and you'll find that the same watch is magically looking to be wearing much better on your wrist.
Best of all, use the third person's perspective for the correct representation of the wear, just like the first photo below (taken by not the wearer/myself, rather another person).
This goes to show exactly why I started the third person's perspective in my videos in the first place, on top of the wrist shots from wearer‘s perspective.
There's another thing to it, but let's talk about it next time...
Share you experience and thoughts, especially if you've been through a similar dilemma!