I'm sure it's a beautiful country and 99% of the population are good honest people, but I'd leave ANY reference to Peru out of the photos Jonathon.

Just my "tip o'the day".

 

Great advice already.

To reduce unwanted reflection and to get a more even look on reflective parts, like bezel inserts and crystals I will use a black piece of card stock taped to my phone. There's's a cutout in the black card for the camera lens to look through. You can get a nice even lighting look with no reflection of your fingers or your phone visible.

Just took this photo with my phone sitting next to a window.



This black card was taped to my phone which is one reason you can't see me, or my phone, or the interior of my house reflected in the crystal.

 

I know Jim. It's just my way of amusing myself ...... As long as my missus is part of the 1% I won't worry too much......???

 

The direct light creates glare. The lightbox is meant to help you avoid that. What you're after is indirect, diffuse light, because it doesn't produce glare or hard shadows.
Keep practicing. The more you do it the better you'll get at it.

 

Thankyou @Observer. D'you know.... (as a musician) I'm finding the, artistic, creativity involved in photography very enjoyable. Unfortunately, at the novice stage of things, it also gives birth to an element of frustration.

 

Eventually you'll get an image that really works and it'll feel great. Then you might get hooked, although I have to tell you that it'll still be frustrating at times. A couple hints:
Shine your light through the fabric of the light box so it will be diffuse.
Keep your light sources as large as possible.
It may be counter-intuitive, but the closer you bring your light to the subject, the softer your shadows will be.

Now I'm inspired to take a good watch photo. Thanks!

 

Photography can cost fargin' more than watches!
Don't get caught!
Those fargin' bastiges will have you spending more taking pictures than the watch will bring!

Your watch will have a bloke flyin' in and buying you a pint...............you don't need no lipstick on this piggy!

 

I don't mind that... as long as he ain't flying in from Peru!

 

Lots of great comments have already been made.
Something I didn't see mentioned is: in the back of the box, take sheets of white paper and and place them so that half the page is touching the back wall of the light box and the bottom half of the paper is touching the bottom of your light box. This curve in the paper creates an "infinity" effect (I don't remember the technical term) and can really make your photos look like stock photography photos (pure white background).
Let me know if I need to be more clear.

 

I think the smart phones are really not the best way to approach any type of photography. a half frame digital camera , even an economical one will do the job, as long as you use a vintage macro lens made for film cameras. but the main thing is the always the "LIGHT" .
practicing with a real camera , you can always improve and do better.

 

You can use a smartphone camera effectively, but I got this for all around use. AMAZING macro capability, and great at capturing light nuances, especially low light. Huge 1" CMOS sensor. Very affordable.

 

Do you have a macro picture of a watch taken with this camera to share, please? Curious to see the result.

 

You did get absolutely a great camera. smart phone can't do what the GTX is a capable of doing

 

Great minds think alike. I use a similar setup on my Lumix GX8 with a f1.7 25mm lens for all my wrist-shots. I tend to rely on focus peaking before I press the shutter, one handed.



Some examples.

 

for very ultra close ups you can also add hand held a 4x or 6x loupe in front of the lens, and adjusting the focusing by moving the camera back and forth

 

I realise this is an old post, however I've found it particularly helpful (although I have a Samsung and not an iPhone).

My previous attempts to photograph my watches has been mediocre at best. I will try photographing in daylight with a loupe (still to purchase) and see how I get on.