Watch brand website, UK
A brand site for a watchmaker, where the photography has to carry the sale without making the page slow.
Overview
Watches are sold on photographs. The buyer cannot hold the thing, so the images have to do the work a shop window would: the case at an angle, the dial at full resolution, the strap close enough to read the stitching. That is a lot of pixels on a page whose whole promise is that it feels considered rather than cheap.
The tension is obvious and most brand sites lose it. Heavy photography is exactly what makes a site slow, and slow reads as cheap, which undoes the thing the photography was there to establish.
So the images are the design constraint rather than an afterthought. Every photograph is served in a modern format at the size it actually displays, with the dimensions declared so nothing jumps as the page settles. Below the fold, images load as they are approached rather than all at once.
The owner adds a model without calling us. Products, photographs and copy live in a CMS, and the site rebuilds itself when something changes, so a new reference is a form rather than an invoice.
What we built
- Photography sized and served at display resolution, in a modern format
- Dimensions declared on every image, so the layout never jumps
- Products and copy in a CMS the owner edits without us
What it did
- The catalogue is the owner's to run: adding a model is a form, not a change request.
- Image weight is bounded by the layout rather than by what was uploaded.
Let's build it.
Tell us what you need. We come back in writing with a price and a date.