How about a little competition? Win my Alpha Planet Ocean

[GuySie]

Okay, so I've been bitching and moaning about my Alpha Planet Ocean Orange for a while now. I don't like it that much, even after trying a huge amount of straps, and I've basically stopped wearing it. That means it's just collecting dust - a fate that no watch really deserves. I'm sure someone else would be quite happy with it, as it gets rave reviews from people here, but I'm not that much into selling watches - it feels a bit wrong. So how to get the watch in the right hands...

Now Geckobros organised a Most Ugliest Affordable Watch competition over on Affordables, offering up an equally ugly watch as a prize for winning, that was a lot of fun! So let's shake things up here too: how about a competition with my Alpha PO as a prize?

I'm a bit of a photography geek, I love the Chinese mechanicals forum, so I was thinking it'd be fun to combine the two. The challenge is:

Take the coolest, most kick-ass, action photo of a Chinese mechanical watch of your choice.

Action can be taken in the broadest terms here, I just want to rule out the static lightbox and watch-just-sitting-on-a-table shots, get you guys doing something different. Something just needs to happen in the shot.

The actual watch you'll be trying to win (minus the water, plus the bracelet its supposed to be on) in an action shot of its own:



I was thinking one entry per person, deadline at midnight sunday 16th of August my time (central european) to give everyone time to come up with an idea and shoot something cool. I'll try to judge mainly on sheer kickass-ness of the photo instead of pure photographic quality, so even those without thousands of dollars of studio equipment can win. Winner gets the watch shipped to him, anywhere in the world, for free.

I hope you guys think this is fun and like the challenge!

[CMY]

Congrats.. you won. Awesome pic!

[GuySie]

Originally Posted by CMY

Congrats.. you won.

I'm disqualified

[SquishyPanda]

I can win a playmate for my blue SMP?

You're on, sir. You're on.

[Seamaster_Fan]

Can I enter a video? I'm thinking of strapping my Alpha to the one of the rims on my car and hitting the highway!

[SquishyPanda]

does the watch have to actually survive the photoshoot? lol

[CamLS]

Ooh I like these kinds of competitions, It gets the photographic juices flowing! I will have to brainstorm and come up with something cool, this is always a good excuse to try a new style of composition/editing.

Thanks for putting this on too, btw. Always neat to see this sort of thing going on in a public forum, as it really makes it feel more close knit.

[CMY]

Originally Posted by CamLS

Ooh I like these kinds of competitions, It gets the photographic juices flowing! I will have to brainstorm and come up with something cool, this is always a good excuse to try a new style of composition/editing.

I have to admit that I'm racking my brain..

[GuySie]

Originally Posted by Seamaster_Fan

Can I enter a video? I'm thinking of strapping my Alpha to the one of the rims on my car and hitting the highway!

Hehehe, bonuspoints for the idea I've been thinking about it after reading your post, but I think it'd be more fair if everybody did photo's... it's much easier to capture action on video (where things moving is kinda part of the deal) than photo.

[c-fu]

Will an Alpha 8926 count, even though its Japanese? The leather band on my Chinese mov't watch wouldn't survive what I had in mind...

[igorycha]

What a pitty - I don't have any chinese... Will russian do? ))

But anyway - very very good idea. I wish there were more such a competitions here.
Cheers
Igor

[rcs914]

Dang, I have a couple neat ideas, but as of yet no Chinese Mechanicals to use as a base for my photo.

Chris

[GuySie]

Ah, didn't expect there to be interest from people without Chinese watches... uh... well, if nobody really minds I guess we could lift the Chinese watch restriction. The more people play, the merrier the game?

[SquishyPanda]

Originally Posted by GuySie

Ah, didn't expect there to be interest from people without Chinese watches... uh... well, if nobody really minds I guess we could lift the Chinese watch restriction. The more people play, the merrier the game?

Maybe keep it to cheap (under 100 bucks/euros or GPB 60?) mechanical watches? Cuz I felt like the point of this was to show that inexpensive Chinese watches aren't afraid to play rough. If it's open to anything, then we're gonna see pictures of people playing Cricket with G-Shocks (and I don't mean on the wrist) and Alphas and old Vostoks just can't compete with something like that.

[midshipman01]

Well, here's my first of many attempts. Took some artistic license with the "action" theme...as in, what could be more action packed than a recreated scene from Goldfinger?

[midshipman01]

Alright...attempt 2. IK Colouring skeleton on Nato.

[Rxq]

Guysie

Photoshop allowed?

[GuySie]

Originally Posted by SquishyPanda

Maybe keep it to cheap (under 100 bucks/euros or GPB 60?) mechanical watches? Cuz I felt like the point of this was to show that inexpensive Chinese watches aren't afraid to play rough. If it's open to anything, then we're gonna see pictures of people playing Cricket with G-Shocks (and I don't mean on the wrist) and Alphas and old Vostoks just can't compete with something like that.

Originally Posted by Rxq

Guysie
Photoshop allowed?

Hmmm, didn't think we'd have to come up with rules when I started this up . Thing is with the price limit, you'll get the same problem as the budgeted posts in Affordables - MSRP is not a real pricing most of the time, while you can devaluate a watch to near zero if you insist on sales price, secondhand watches and coupon use. Let's go with an honour system here. We're all friends, don't screw each other on the rules

- Any mechanical watch which you would (and be honest here!) post in the Chinese Mechanicals or Affordables subforums can be entered.
- Photoshop only for non-invasive adjustments like fixing colour curves, cropping the picture, etc that leave the photograph intact - no copy/pasting, clone stamping, etc.

I know 'affordable' is a relative term for everybody but I think most people understand that a Rolex Sub is never going to fall under that category, no matter how affordable it is to you. Just ask yourself "Is this the kind of watch that belongs in the Affordables forum?"

Oh, one last clarification:
- One entry per person, but you're free to add multiple pictures for fun or change the picture before the competiton ends. Just don't forget to specify which is your specific entry before the deadline!

[GuySie]

Originally Posted by midshipman01

Well, here's my first of many attempts. Took some artistic license with the "action" theme...as in, what could be more action packed than a recreated scene from Goldfinger?

That's actually a pretty cool interpretation of 'action', hadn't even thought in that direction myself

[Magnus]

This sounds like a cool competition but wouldn't it be better if all entrys were emailed to GuySie so he can post them in one post like the Seiko/Citizen forum photo contests? Because you want to see all entrys before you vote.

I'll see if I can come up with a cool action shot during the weekend.