When Precision Meets the Lens
There's something inherently cinematic about luxury timepieces. The way light catches a polished bezel, the mechanical precision visible through a sapphire caseback—it's the kind of detail that makes a photographer obsessive. When Glashütte Original approached me about shooting their Wall Street collection, I knew immediately that this wouldn't be a typical product shoot.
The concept was built around contrasts. We wanted the raw energy of New York City as a backdrop for something impossibly refined. The first location was a barbershop downtown—one of those old-school joints with checkerboard floors and leather chairs that have been there since the '60s. There's a grit to those spaces that makes luxury feel earned rather than inherited.
Wall Street: Where Money Never Sleeps
The second phase of the campaign moved to Wall Street itself. The architecture down there is almost oppressive in its grandeur—columns the size of redwoods, shadows that cut like razors at certain hours. We shot during the golden window between 3 and 5 PM when the light bounces between the buildings and creates this warm, almost amber glow that you can't replicate in a studio.
The Art of Watch Photography
Shooting watches is one of the most technically demanding specialties in commercial photography. You're dealing with highly reflective surfaces, tiny details that need to be razor-sharp, and the expectation that every image conveys both the craftsmanship and the lifestyle. For the Glashütte campaign, I used a combination of macro work for the dial details and wider environmental shots that placed the timepiece in context.
What I love about campaigns like this is the storytelling element. A watch on a white background tells you nothing. A watch on the wrist of a man stepping out of a downtown barbershop, the streets of the Financial District blurring behind him—that tells you everything about who this watch is for.
The Glashütte Original Wall Street campaign remains one of my favorite commercial projects—proof that the best luxury advertising doesn't shout. It whispers.
About the Photographer
Portfolio · Biricik Media · Unpomela · ICEe PC · cemhan.ai · Isabel Biricik · Behance · Instagram
