With a combination of CG and macro cinematography, Paris creative digital agency I-réel expands its portfolio of luxury product films with this intimate and intricate work for venerable Swiss watchmaker Baume & Mercier.
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From the team at I-reel: “The Riviera watch is inspired by the French Riviera mood: sea, sun, and the art of living on the Côte d’Azur. In addition, each collection of the brand uses its own design. Our objective for this film was to link those two universes, one from the maritime world and the other astronomical, with different textures.

“This project is completely post-produced in 4K resolution. The Moonphase images were shot with our RED 8K camera in our in-house studio, coupled with our motion-control robot. CGI sequences were created with 3ds Max and V-Ray.
 

“Our objective for this film was to link those two universes, one from the maritime world and the other astronomical, with different textures.”

 
“The film is divided into four parts, where each texture highlights a specific detail of the watch. For the opening we created small pebbles, reminding us of the lunar surface, pushed back by an invisible object, emitting light, and recalling the different moon phases.

“In the second part, we focus on the dial, which is encircled by a thin blue disc. Closer, blue streaks stand for the movement of the waves. It took us lots of experiments to create this texture, associated with a ripple animation to represent the sea. The rendering is of a subtle softness, and the light hangs perfectly on the fringe waves.

“You can’t talk about the Riviera without mentioning water. For this part, we created a transparent outer dial but kept the indexes (the hour indication markers) in steel. Then we poured water into this cylinder. The idea was to see the liquid bouncing in that shape and create a structure halfway between an art installation and science fiction, where gravity would not exist.”
 
 

 
Client: Baume & Mercier

Production: I-réel
Director: I-réel
Project Management: Joanna Brunet
Producer: Henri Hayon
Director/Art Director: Henri Hayon, Simon Ravet
Creative Director: Alain Laurans
Lead 3D Artist: Bruno Jean
3D Artist: Rami Ibrahim, Antoine Firla
Lead Compositor/Motion Designer: Simon Ravet
Compositor: Fred & David
Color Grading: Raphael Garrigues