Watchworks Are So Beautiful!

This is an old, broken pocket watch. Earlier today I spent 5 minutes with this watch movement, a little Mr. Metal metal cleaner/polish, and paper towels, and a final once-over with a jeweler's polishing cloth. It started out very dull and grey-brown, but cleaned up so nice! It amazes me how much detail was put into the inside of a watch, which people generally did not see. This watch will never run again, and most of the parts inside, those that are left, are pretty well corroded. According to the person I bought it from, it spent something like 45 years in a box in a garage somewhere. I'm going to make it the centerpiece for something, and it will be part of an art piece. I shot this in my new mini-studio, a Rubbermaid translucent file box ($7.99 at Freddy's) with a couple of swing-arm lamps, one on either side, daylight (cool white) CFLs in each. I shot it with my 50mm dark 'n' contrasty f2.8 macro manual focus lens. There is still much perfecting to do with this system, and I really prefer overcast daylight to shoot, but it came out fairly decent overall. Obviously I need a better background to shoot against than a beading cloth, but it's early days yet. I just wanted to see how it would turn out.