Adding a memorial photo on your watch is a great watch personalization option today! Stephanie ordered this Soufeel engraved photo watch (unisex and with leather strap) and tested it for a couple days. Let's read her in-depth review of the entire experience and see how her photo watch looks!
Online jewelry and watch sales amount to over $8 billion. While fine jewelry is a major seller, many people still love wearing watches. Ever since 1916, watches served as a way to tell the time but also made a serious fashion statement.
Now there are more ways to express yourself with a watch. Watch style options are limitless—from unconventional materials like wood to serious high-tech watches, everyone can find a watch they love.
More jewelry enthusiasts are choosing a custom watch. Custom jewelry has been trending in the jewelry world and there are many ways to personalize a watch.
How can you keep up with the trends and find a high-quality watch?🤔 Soufeel offers many watch customization options and a user-friendly platform to personalize and order your watch.
We ordered the Soufeel Engraved Photo Watch and are very pleased with the quality, as well as the ordering process and the quick delivery. Here, we go into an in-depth review of our entire experience.👇🏻
Ordering Process
We also reviewed Soufeel’s Carrie Name Necklace and gave Soufeel great ratings for this same category. Out of all of the custom jewelry stores, Soufeel by far has the best ordering platform. The whole process is straightforward and the steps are very easy to follow.
The only issue is designing and editing the photo. Soufeel doesn’t offer many resources and best practices, making the process a little difficult for someone who’s new to creating photo jewelry.
We will discuss the pros and cons with each step.
Choosing the color of the strap
Compared to other jewelry pieces, the watch offers limited style options. The first step is choosing the watch strap color, but that’s really the only personalized fashion option.
I’m the type of person who primarily wears black and other dark colors, so I stuck with the classic black strap. But you can choose a brown or red strap for a higher price.
Adding the photo to the watch
Next comes the fun part—adding your photo!😊 If you’re unsure which photo to use, here are common photos chosen for this Soufeel engraved photo watch:
- Spouse or significant other
- Your child or a family member
- Pet
- A fond memory, such as a photo from your wedding
For my watch, I chose a photo of my boyfriend and me at the beach.
While Soufeel doesn’t offer many best practices when editing your photo to fit the watch, they offer plenty of advice when choosing a photo. This includes:
- Choose bright photos—avoid dark photos.
- Avoid photos where the subject is too big. Make sure there’s plenty of background to easily edit the photo.
- But you also want to avoid photos where the subject is too small and there’s too much background.
- Your photo should be in focus. Avoid blurry photos.
- Your photo should fit within the border and shouldn’t be skewed.
Fortunately, Soufeel offers plenty of editing options. We’ll go over this in the next section.
Editing the photo
When you insert your image, it will appear on the dial of the watch to the left side of the screen. Under the watch, you’ll see a variety of tools you can use to adjust the image on the watch (identifiable by the yellow arrows in the picture above).
These buttons include:
- Moving the photo left and right
- Moving the photo up and down
- Zoom in and zoom out
- Rotate clockwise and counterclockwise
Editing and adjusting the photo is easy.✌🏻 I just didn’t like how Soufeel doesn’t offer any advice or best practices during this phase. The only disclaimer they include is they will make the watch exactly how you edit it.
Even a disclaimer such as, “your photo should be perfectly center and the top of the photo should be at the 12 o’clock timepiece” would have saved me a bit of confusion.
I was especially puzzled by the position of the photo; since the face of the watch turns to the side when you wear it, I wasn’t sure if the photo should be at the top or at the side.
For my watch, all I had to do was move the photo down a little bit so it was perfectly centered.
Add an engraving
Soufeel also offers the option to add an engraving. The engraving will appear on the caseback of the watch (or the metal part on the back of the watch). The engraving is completely optional (though adding an engraving does cost an additional $5.99).
I didn’t opt for the engraving but an engraving is a great idea for a gift or if you’re commemorating a special person, date, or occasion.
Quick checkout
Like the necklace, all you need to do during the checkout process is review your order and enter your shipping and payment information. You can also create a free Soufeel account and expedite this process for future orders.
For this order, I decided to try DHL shipping instead of the basic shipping. If you need your jewelry in a timely manner, it’s definitely worth the extra money.
Shipping
As stated previously, I opted for the DHL shipping. It took me a little over two weeks to receive my Carrie Name Necklace (that also included the time it took to make the necklace). So I was curious to see how long the process took with the expedited DHL shipping.
DHL shipping takes between two and four business days and USPS expedited (the cheaper option) takes between five and eight business days.
I placed my order on April 10. If you look in the upper right corner of the screenshot, you’ll see the date I received my confirmation email.
I received an email on April 27 informing me the watch was on its way. I circled the date I received the email in the upper right corner of the screenshot.
I received the watch on April 29—two days😮, as they promised. Again, the date is circled in the upper right corner of the screenshot.
Better yet, they originally told me the watch will be delivered on May 4. I was surprised to find the watch arrived days early!
The one thing I noticed is even though the shipping is fast, it took longer to create the watch than the necklace. I expected it—I mean, they are printing a photo on a watch and designing the watch by hand.
Soufeel informs customers that it does take around four or five business days to create the watch. But mine took over 10 business days. This could be due to the pandemic. But if your photo watch is time-sensitive, such as ordering it as a birthday or Christmas gift, I still suggest ordering the watch at least two weeks in advance.
Watch Quality
The watch is durable and the strap is made of high-quality leather. I wore it for a couple days in a row before writing this review. The strap bent slightly with wear; otherwise, there are no significant changes.
In addition, the watch is water-resistant, to some degree. Soufeel doesn’t recommend wearing the watch in the shower or while you’re swimming. However, if you’re caught in the rain, your watch shouldn’t face much damage (though I didn’t test this).
The design is also identical to the design you see online. The timepieces are represented by silver dots (I would prefer numbers or even Roman Numerals, but that’s just me), and the hands are silver. You can adjust the time using the crown at the right side of the watch. The watch even arrived displaying the correct time!
Wearing the watch
The watch is a little bulky for my preference. I’m a full-time writer so I’m always on my computer. The watch interfered with typing and kept hitting the side of the laptop. While all watches and bracelets do this, smaller sports watches don’t interfere as much.
If this is a concern of yours, Soufeel does offer the measurements under the details section. The watch strap is 20 mm (0.8 inches) thick and the dial is 40 mm (1.5 inches) in circumference. While it’s not the biggest watch in the world, I still prefer thin watches.
The strap is adjustable and fits perfectly on my rather small wrist toward the end of the strap. The watch weighs 43g (1.5 ounces)⚖️ so it’s lightweight and comfortable.
I also tested the watch side-by-side with a normal watch. Even though the Soufeel engraved photo watch is bigger, you can definitely see the photo watch is much higher quality than your average watch.
Photo quality
The quality of the photo is largely impacted by the photo you choose and how you edit the picture. But I was still unsure if any picture quality would be reduced.
The picture is still crystal clear and looks lovely on the watch. I showed it to my boyfriend and he was very impressed—he thought I placed the picture on there (of course I told him Soufeel handled the watch design).
Material
As stated previously, the strap is a durable leather but isn’t too heavy. The watch case and caseback are made of special alloys with an antioxidation finish. I’ve had no issues with the watch tarnishing, scratching, or any other common problems.
Box and spring bar tool included
One of the many reasons why I love Soufeel is they include a complimentary box or bag with your purchase. The watch is stored in a long, black box with the Soufeel logo printed on it. I’m not an organized person at all so the packaging helps keep my watch in one place.
📝The purchase also includes a spring bar tool if you want to remove or replace your watch band straps.
Warranty
Soufeel offers a 365-day warranty. This is pretty impressive, considering you have a whole year to exchange your watch if there’s any damage.
Keep in mind, the watch can’t be returned unless it’s damaged or defective. You also can’t modify the watch after placing your order.
Overall Review
This Soufeel engraved photo watch (unisex) is high-quality. The watch is comfortable to wear and will last a long time. As long as you choose a great photo, the picture will be high-res and will fit perfectly in the dial.
Just be sure to order your watch far in advance and adjust your photo before placing your order. If anything happens with this watch, you have a 365-warranty.
💃🏻Check this item now, or read the recommended post:
> How to Design a Nice “Photo Watch” Within 5 Mins (Or Less)?
