I used Adobe Photoshop CS 4 and CorelDraw X3 to make the image but other versions are also applicable.
You can see the image in high resolution here.
At first sight the tutorial seems long, actually more of the steps contain only description of the layer style applied to the respective timepiece part. It will take you no more than three hours to implement all steps and to achieve the final result.
Step 1
Create a new .psd file of 2000px width and 3300px height, 72dpi.
Click twice on the Background to make an ordinary layer of it as you’ll need to apply layer style later. Rename this Layer 0 as Background again for your convenience.
Navigate to your Tool Bar and set Foreground color to # 290509, go to Edit menu and choose Fill. When Fill dialog box appear, choose Foreground Color from Use drop down menu and click OK button.
Now you have a nice dark background for the clock design. Let us give it some slight scarcely visible relief.
Right click on Background layer, select Blending Options and check Texture. In Texture box click on the tiny down arrow to open Pattern Picker, select Artist Surfaces and when the program asks you to Replace the Current Patterns with Patterns from Artist Surfaces, click on Append button. In the opened Pattern Picker select Dark Coarse Weave pattern from the chosen Artist Surfaces set, set Scale option to 20% and Depth to 18%.
Step 2
Create a new layer above the background and name it Dark Frame. Fill with black color, change Blend Mode to Soft Light and reduce Opacity to 40 %. Add Layer Mask (Layer, Layer Mask, Reveal All), take soft black brush of about 800-1000px size and brush while the mask is selected. Erase most parts of this black layer, leave only the borders untouched.
When satisfied with the result, highlight both layers- Background and Dark Frame, go to Layer, Group Layers and call the group Background.
Save your Timepiece file for now. We are going to work with CorelDraw in the next steps.
Step 3
Open CorelDraw X3 (Version 13) and create a new A4 graphic (from Paper Type/Size drop down menu in Property Bar select A4). You’ll need to switch on the grid in order to make your work easier. Go to Layout menu, select Page Setup and when Options dialog box appears, select Grid: check Frequency, leave Spacing unchecked, set Horizontal and Vertical Frequency to 5.08, check Show Grid and Show Grid as Lines. When ready press OK button.
Step 4
In this step your task is only to draw two circles with Ellipse Tool. Hold down Ctrl while drawing in order to make perfect circles.
Step 5
Take Rectangle Tool and draw a long rectangular shape. Its four angles must intersect the ellipses.
Step 6
Now grab Pick Tool and select all objects you have drawn so far. Press Intersect Icon on the Property Bar and you’ll see how the first intersected area appears selected (it is the right ellipse). Click with Pick Tool outside the objects to deselect everything, then click with the same tool on the right ellipse and press Delete key. The superfluous parts of the ellipse will disappear and you’ll have only the intersected part of it in the rectangle.
Deselect all objects again.
Step 7
Take Pick Tool and this time holding down Shift, select only the left circle and the rectangle. Press Intersect Icon again. Deselect everything by clicking with Pick Tool out of the objects. Use Pick Tool again to select only the left circle and press Delete.
Step 8
Now click on Fill Tool (the paint bucket icon) in order to appear the fly- out menu of fill tools. Select the second one from left to right- Fountain Fill Dialog (hot key- F11). Our task here is to fill each of the three parts with a lovely golden gradient. On the screenshot given for this step, you see the final result. Next three steps will give you detailed description of the whole color fill process.
Step 9
Select with Pick Tool the left part of our rectangular shape, from Fill Tool fly- out menu choose Fountain Fill Dialog or press F11 key. When Fountain Fill dialog box appears, set Angle at 15 degrees and Edge Pad to 20%, leave Type to Linear. To change the colors of the gradient, firstly click on the left marker, go to the color swatches to the right and choose Khaki (when you point at any color swatch its name appears). Then click on the right marker and select Chalk from the swatches.
Deselect the shape.
Step 10
Select the right shape with Pick Tool, go to Fountain Fill Dialog, set Angle at -15 degrees, Edge Pad to 20% and this time select Chalk color for the left swatch and Khaki color for the right one.
Step 11
Select the rectangle with Pick Tool. Press F11 to open the Fountain Fill Dialog box. For the left swatch choose Olive Drab color, select Khaki for the right swatch and to add a third color, double click between the two swatches to add a new one. Move it so that in Position box to appear 58%. Choose Chalk color for this swatch.
As you can see, all black outlines are missing in the screenshot given for this step. In the next step you will learn how to remove them.
Step 12
For the purpose of this tutorial you should get rid of the black outlines which spoil the smooth and dainty look of our golden rectangle.
Select the whole rectangle with Pick Tool, click on Outline Tool and from the fly-out menu choose No Fill.
Now our golden rectangle is ready and all the work in CorelDraw completed.
All you have to do it is to export the shape in .png type. Go to File, Export to call the Export dialog box. Click on the Save In drop down menu and find the folder with your Timepiece .psd file. In File Name enter Rectangle and from Save As Type drop down menu choose PNG (Portable Network Graphics). Click on Export button. Now you can close the CorelDraw .cdr file.
Step 13
Move the .png rectangle shape created in CorelDraw into your Photoshop document, place its layer above Background group. Resize the shape with Edit, Free Transform to look as on the screenshot to this step. Call the layer Rectangle and while highlighted go to Layer menu, select Group Layers and name the new group Rectangle.
Right click on Rectangle layer, select Blending options and check Bevel and Emboss layer style. Change the settings in Bevel and Emboss box like this:
Style: Inner Bevel
Technique: Smooth
Depth: 100 %
Direction: Up
Size: 250px
Soften: 0px
Angle: 120 degrees
Use Global Light- checked
Altitude: 30 degrees
Gloss Contour: linear
Anti- aliased: unchecked
Highlight Mode: Screen
Highlight Color: # feee96
Opacity: 100%
Shadow Mode: Multiply
Shadow Color: 736711
Opacity: 68%
Step 14
Take Rounded Rectangle Tool from the Tools Bar, navigate to the Options Bar and set Radius to 360 pixels, choose Shape Layers Mode. Change Foreground Color to a lovely light yellow # e3e371 and draw the rounded rectangle shape. You should have Shape 1 layer in Layers Palette. Leave it above the previously created Rectangle group.
Step 15
While Shape 1 layer is highlighted, right click on it and select Rasterize Layer. Hold down Ctrl key and click on the layer thumbnail to load a selection. When the rounded rectangle appears selected, go to Select menu, choose Modify, Contract. In Contract Selection box enter 80px and press OK. Press Delete in order to make a chain segment shape. Keep its layer highlighted as we’ll continue to process the shape in the next steps.
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