Fresh off the heels of my Audi R8 3D model, here we go again with another one! This 3D watch model that I am posting today is actually the first model that I ever built in Maya. What can I say? Instead of starting off with something simple, I decided to go big and do a 3D model of a Rolex Daytona. Why not, right? Anyway, It turned out so well that I’ve been modeling in Maya ever since.
A brief summary of this 3-D watch model
Although this was the first object that I had ever built using Maya, it wasn’t all that complicated actually. Wrist watches are fairly simple objects (unlike cars) and most everything consists of simple circles and squares. For comparison sake, this Rolex Daytona took roughly 2 weeks to build in the evenings after work, whereas the Audi R8 took me just over a month.
The only thing that really frustrated me was the rendering of it. Building the 3D model wasn’t all that bad actually, but being new to Maya, the rendering process was extremely daunting to me at the time. Yeah, it disappointed me to realize that I didn’t have the skills necessary to render it the way I wanted to, but I knew that would come with time.
And you know what? I actually did develop those skills over time. The renderings you are seeing above and below were a collection of images that I whipped up specifically for this post. I never would’ve been able to do something like this way back in the day!
Screenshots of the final model
As you can see below, the Rolex Daytona is an extremely beautiful wrist watch. I’m not a watch guy at all, but it wasn’t difficult for me to appreciate the engineering that went into this work of art. As a matter fact, it has even tempted me to model some other 3D watches in the future.
Fully rendered front 3/4 view
Fully rendered close up of the watch face
Ambient occlusion model showing the details
Ambient occlusion rendering of the entire watch
The wireframe – as you can see, this is a very high-poly 3d model!
Another view of the wireframe from top-down
How was this 3D watch model built?
As I said above, I used Maya to build this model. I believe it was version 2017, but the renderings you’re seeing in this post were done in Maya 2020.
I’m a polygon modeler, meaning that 99% of this watch 3D model was created polygon-by-polygon. I did have to use splines for some elements (the body of the watch for example), but those were only used as guides and I converted everything to polygons shortly thereafter. There is no spline data left over in the source files. Sorry. It’s all gone.
What’s the poly count?
Even though I’ve posted a limited number of 3D models here to trashedgraphics.com, you’re going to learn some thing about my modeling style very quickly: I like high-detail, high-poly models!
I’m not a game designer, and my goal when it comes to building a 3-D model is realism over efficiency. I don’t care if it bogs down my computer a bit, I just want to see the photo realistic renderings at the end of the project!
The specific details of this 3D watch model are as follows:
- Verts: 1665417
- Edges: 3256042
- Faces: 1591476
- Tris: 3246712
- UVs: 1752233
Note that most of the details are in the watch face itself. While extremely detailed, I did skimp a little bit in the watchband figuring that it probably wasn’t necessary to model every little single screw and hinge. You could certainly add those sort of details in if you need them, but I figured it wasn’t really necessary for my purposes.
Is this model available in any other format other than Maya?
Yes! Although the native format is .ma (Maya), I have exported other versions of this Rolex Daytona 3D model in OBJ and FBX format. As I said in my post about my Audi R8 3-D model, most decent 3D modeling software packages can read OBJ and FBX format without any issues.
Does this model come with textures?
It sure does. Again, since this 3D watch model was built using Maya, the native textures are Maya-based. More specifically, I created them using the Arnold Render plug-in (which comes with Maya), so you’re going to need that if you want to re-create these renderings exactly as I’m showing here.
That being said, the FBX and OBJ files come with the textures as well. Please note, however, that these are extremely basic, and not as vivid as the Arnold Render textures. In other words, you’re not gonna get the glossy chrome in those two other formats.
Does this model come with UV maps?
Yup! 98% of the details of this watch 3-D model are objects built using polygons. However, some of the details such as the text on the face of the watch and the numbers on the outer ring are UV maps. Those UV maps are included in a separate folder. Note that they are also extremely high resolution (2000x2000px).
Is this an animated model?
No. However, all objects are ungrouped, so if you wanted to add rigging to this model, it wouldn’t be all that difficult if you know what you’re doing.
What’s the file size?
While the native Maya file comes in at a respectable 11 MB, the FBX file is roughly 22. The OBJ? That one’s a bit beefy at 77 MB, but remember – this is an extremely accurate 3D watch model, so you’re gonna have to deal with that kind of file size if you want photo realistic renderings.
Of course I understand this isn’t going to work for everybody. Game designers would probably not find this model useful. However, it’s perfect for anyone needing a watch 3D model for close up product shot renderings.
How can you render this watch 3-D model exactly like I did?
It’s pretty easy actually. All I used were 3 area lights: One of the top, two in the front and back, and one on the side. All of them were pointed directly at the watch at a 90° angle.
That’s it! I didn’t use any special environment effects at all, and it’s a super easy setup to reproduce in nearly any 3D modeling program.
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