Watch gears were photographed using oblique illumination through dyed cellulose acetate gels provided by a Dolan-Jenner Fiber-Lite 150 watt tungsten halide projector lamp source equipped with dual fiber optic light pipes. The light pipes were terminated with condensing lenses and linear polarizers oriented with the vibration direction parallel to the microscope optical axis. Additional incident illumination (to remove shadows) was obtained from a Fostec 8325 light source using a fiber optic ring light guide. Images were recorded with an Olympus DP-10 digital video camera on a Nikon SMZ-U zoom stereo microscope.