Hands of Time: A Watchmaker's History

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I enjoyed the strong characters developed for this story. Valerie found in this new time and age what her heart truly desired and what she could not have in her own time and place. She was portrayed as strong and yet true to her heart. I loved how she handled the love of two brothers. Finnlay was not who I wanted her to fall in love with...I wanted her to love Alec, from the start, but eventually.... Anyway, the characters came alive for me as did the world of 1605. I enjoyed meeting the house staff from Mrs. Dobbs to Betty...they were great secondary characters! And of course, Valerie's sister, Louisa....how devastating to lose your only sister and not know how or why, was she still alive? And I now understand Guy Fawkes Day...so even though this was a work of fiction, I learned something! I thought it was a great story and recommend it as a fantasy, fun, An award-winning watchmaker—one of the few practicing the art in the world today—chronicles the invention of time through the centuries-long story of one of mankind’s most profound technological achievements: the watch.

North Carolina didn't exist during this time. They didn't split until the 1700s. They were just Carolina. Not north and south. So, no, no would say would 'we went to North Carolina.' Silly but I think it should matter.This book is a true gem! It delves into the world of watchmaking, offering a unique perspective from the eyes of a watchmaker. It reads like an autobiography, intertwining the history of time and watchmaking, and providing detailed insights into the creation of each component. The author's ethereal writing style adds a touch of fantasy to the reading experience. It's a book that captivates the curious mind. Today Struthers Watchmakers, based in a small studio in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, is celebrated around the world for its award-winning creations, as well as its dedication to promoting the painstaking craft of traditional watchmaking. (Rebecca is the first, and only, person in the UK to hold a PhD in watchmaking.) Watches not only measure time, they are a manifestation of time—signifiers of the most precious thing we have,” writes Struthers. The first watchmaker in British history to earn a doctorate in antiquarian horology, the study of time and timepieces, the author has devoted her life to them. Her debut book is a fascinating, charming examination, and Struthers ably melds the larger story with her own. She initially trained as a jeweler and silversmith, and before that, she was intrigued by forensics. All these came together when she encountered watchmaking, and she fell in love with the complexity and precision of the discipline. She takes a tour through the evolution of watches, noting that the first were produced in the early 16th century. Some watches constructed hundreds of years ago still work perfectly, with little maintenance; few machines can make comparable claims. The book has plenty of stories and colorful characters, making for a remarkable narrative. For a while, it looked as if mechanical watches would become extinct under pressure from digital technology, but the past decade has seen a new generation emerge as high-prestige items, and most of them are superb objects. Struthers provides a glossary as well as an appendix on how to repair a watch, and her expertise and passion for her subject shine through. She has always been aware of the passage of time, but it became an acute concern when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The prognosis is good, but it gave her a fresh perspective on her work. “We all measure our lives in moments of time, and the memories that accompany them,” she writes. “Watches, which tell the time for us as they did for those before us, provide a constant in those memories.” A fascinating history of timekeeping from Harrison to Hamilton, from Sundials to Seikos. On the basis of the author's profession I had, I admit, mistaken it to be a book about watches. In fact only a handful of chapters at the end are dedicated to wrist watches.

Rebecca Struthers weaves together a beautiful narrative exploring the major milestones and innovations which have led to the watches of today. She takes us on a journey through time, beginning by examining the very first examples of watches in the early 1500s. Timepieces are one of humanity’s most ingenious innovations. Their invention was more significant for human culture than the printing press, or even the wheel. They have travelled the world with us, from the depths of the oceans to the summit of Everest, and even to the Moon. They regulate our daily lives and have sculpted the social and economic development of society in surprising and dramatic ways. I really love objet d’art type watches. If I had the ability to make whatever I wanted, and didn’t have to worry about selling it, I’d go for something incredibly beautiful and decorative and ornate. And I’d include as many of [the] amazing crafts people [we work with] in as many different disciplines as possible. I have some ideas, actually. And that’s part of our 10-year plan. After 10 years of 248s we plan on not taking any more commissions and just making what we want to make. And then selling it when it’s done. If I look out from my office window, I see three huge buildings with 'Rolex' in discreet lettering on top, so it was interesting to read about how the Swiss watch industry grew as a mass market response to the high costs imposed by the strict guilds of London. Early Swiss watches were low-cost fakes - or at least lower-cost imitations of the English handmade luxury items. Rolex was the brainchild of a German advertising expert, who bought cheap Swiss movements, assembled them in London and marketed the resulting wrist watches as the perfect tool for the macho adventurer, in an era when wrist watches were generally seen as effeminate. The book is also about your life and career. A recurring theme is people saying you can’t do something – and you proving them wrong. It starts with a teacher at school telling you Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days is too long and hard for you to read. You were eight. Have you chilled out a bit?

You’re talking about highly bespoke watchmaking. But there is a handful of respected British brands flying the flag today. Bremont, Bamford, Fears… Is our global reputation improving? Modernise. It was the only area of British industrialisation that lagged behind the continent when it came to the industrial revolution. We really resisted mass production and cost cutting… We tried to compete without adopting mass manufacturing techniques. It wasn’t seen as the future. We thought British watchmakers could make high-end watches for the few [and let] these other people make huge numbers of watches very cheaply. The irony is that [unfortunately] that couldn’t be more true today – with the tiny, tiny number of watches being made in the UK. Hands of Time is an anthropology of human history through the lens of timekeeping/watches/horology. Anthropology is a subject I've only scraped the surface of in my studies so I was excited to give this book a go. Ripping the band-aid right off the bat: this is a decently dry book. I'm not talking about textbook style, but if you aren't at all interested in horology, this will be absolutely horrific to read.