iPhone Watch Photography Tips?

I’ve been struggling to get a satisfying shot of my watches with the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The sharpening seems way too aggressive, especially under strong light, and when I shoot at 1x I get noticeable wide-angle distortion. But switching to 2x cleans that up at the cost of a lot of fine detail.

Has anyone found a sweet spot or workaround? Maybe a particular distance, focus lock, or app that gives more natural results? Would love to see what’s worked for others shooting with an iPhone. I do have a DSLR with macro lenses etc but nothing beats the convenience of a phone in the pocket.

I have the same iPhone 15 Pro Max. I often use 3x for watch pictures. The trick is to move the phone away from the watch so it switches over from the ultra-wide lens to the main lens and gives a blurred background. The ultra wide lens is terrible for macro/close up shots most of the time. The main lens also gives a more natural look with real proportions for wrist shots.

Oh, the ultra-wide lens has been the culprit! Yes I can see that switching to the 24mm main lens made a huge difference. Thank you!

I wish I could manually control which lens gets used.

Ive just bought a clip on macro lens to try as well, having done some digging and Im seeing a few good examples online but this is more for dial details than overall shots