Patek Philippe Nautilus Grey Dial Automatic Men's Watch 5724R

Whether or not it goes viral, the photograph is fast becoming the main tool of communication. Watchmaking in the 21st century, which claims to be as creative as ever, shows a surprising level of conservatism when it comes to its photographic expression. And the gap between horological creativity and photographic conservatism seems to be getting bigger.

Our elders love to remind us that things were better "in the olden days", often making us smile as they do so. We are understanding yet dubious and sometimes sceptical. Surely with the technology of the new millennium the "olden days" have no chance of being better than the here and now? One thing that is sure about progress is that it is irreversible. So why are watch photos so boring at the moment?

Subjectivity cannot excuse everything
Tastes, colours and everything in between may easily be used to dismiss arguments against our premise and beauty is, after all, in the eye of the beholder. But watch photography from the 1950s to the 1980s was undoubtedly more creative than it has been in any other period.
The genre seems to be confined to two unbelievably poor terms: "soldat" (the French for "soldier", referring to packshots of the watch standing to attention) and "mushroom" (referring to packshots where the watch case appears perched on top of the strap, like the head of a mushroom), each portrayed on deserted white or black backgrounds. Dry, ascetic, uniform, standard. Where is the emotion?

Marketing dissonance
And yet everything seems to suggest that there should be free reign for creativity in watch photos. Watches and watchmaking are all about emotion and the brands are effusive with their emotional terminology. Watches are "generous", "audacious" and "avant-garde". The rhetorical imagination is limitless.
But how do the brands translate their lyricism into photography, the final act in the product presentation and the one that will decide the sale? By a packshot on a black or white background. The most cynical among us conclude: all that for this?

Fashion to the rescue

Watchmaking is a product of luxury and/or of fashion, just like a prestige automobile, designer clothing, a great fragrance or fine jewellery. Fortunately, these worlds know how to show off their wares and are masters of colours, modelling, not to mention contextual and chromatic risk-taking.
The most recent campaign by Chanel is a brilliant example of how the brand's two universes - high fashion and watchmaking - can feed off each other. The latter benefits from the audacity of the former, which takes the beautiful advertisements from the past century as its creative inspiration.

Independent saviours
In practice, the majority of brands use freelance photographers. But their freedom with respect to the brands hiring them is far from unrestrained and often deftly managed by the creative director of the brand.
Nevertheless, some take risks and manage to convince their customers. Guy Lucas de Peslouan partnered with Richard Mille in 2006 for a work in which each page dissects with a scalpel the hundreds of components in one of the brand's watches. This clinical universe was a great illustration of the hypertechnicality of the brand and was far removed from the standards of the time.
Denis Hayoun has produced photographs in which the shadows are more important than the light. Unlike packshots that have no modesty, in these shots it is up to the observer to plunge into the photo and look for the lines, the light and the gestures.

The short-cut to effectiveness
Nicolas Lefeuvre works in both fashion and watchmaking. "A watch is a technical product and is becoming even more so," he says. "To show everything, or as much complications as possible, the wide packshot is the most effective short-cut, often to the detriment of creativity".

The Internet and ecommerce are other aggravating factors. "These channels only work with packshots and the entire creative universe of the print catalogue is immediately lost." And then there is the audience itself, who "believes that the product is sufficient in itself and that there is no need to create a brand universe, an aura, like a model can do for jewellery or cosmetics. We have shifted from a genuine culture of advertising to simple product communication. The younger creative directors are no longer sons of advertising, they are marketers".

David Carteron, a freelance photographer, has the last word: "Brands dissociate their visual communication from their event marketing. For watches, it is a simple packshot on a white background. At events, there is richness and show. The product is now hardly visible in sponsoring, for example. It is almost left up to the customer to make the connection between the product seen in the press and the event that he or she is attending. And when it comes to budget, the event takes precedence over the photograph."

And tomorrow?
Things are starting to change. Partly, but not entirely, thanks to these freelancers. Social media, an eager consumer of increasingly well thought-out images, is also responsible. Some brands are also evolving. Raymond Weil has produced some interesting shots of the watch it created in partnership with Gibson, along the lines ArtyA's Son of Sound model. Even the sage A. Lange & Söhne has tried something new with its Datograph Black & White.

Some brands have understood the popularity of creative photos. Baume & Mercier has long put the emphasis more on the Hamptons than on the product. Patek Philippe puts it more on inheritance than on its latest annual calendar. These brands are still exceptions to the rule but they do prove one thing, as Guy Lucas de Peslouan sums up: "you can be marketing-oriented and artistic at the same time".