Hands of Time: A Watchmaker's History of Time. 'An exquisite book' - STEPHEN FRY

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My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Harper for an advance copy on this book about time, what we make of it, how we tell it, and what our knowledge of time tells about about us. 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. There are a few books that have the power to make you feel truly happy. And this book is definitely one of them. From the moment I started listening to it on Audible, it brought me immense joy. It entertained and enlightened me with fascinating insights into the history of watchmaking, including significant figures like Louise Breguet, John Harrison and Thomas Mudge.

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. Instead, it is a book that covers the full history of the world as it relates to timekeeping. How the measurement of time has been used to save lives, proclaim love, exploit workers, explore the world, fight wars, symbolise wealth, and sustain economies. In that way it's much more wide-reaching, and of wider appeal, than a book just about watches. It shows how timekeeping has underpinned, supported, or enabled a vast cross-section of historical events as wide-ranging as the French revolution and the moon landings - though the latter only garners a single short sentence. In watch circles people are often tribally divided into Omega or Rolex fans, and Struthers seems rather to be in the Rolex camp, dedicating at least a whole chapter to Rolex, and barely a sentence to Omega. I was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of the Accutron, quartz, swatch, and digital watches, which felt like a fitting and complete way to finish the story. Also pleasing was the mature and socially aware discussion of difficult topics such as Nazi watches, British colonial history, the subjugation and exploitation of women, enslaved people, and children throughout history. In Hands of Time you mention Louis XVI’s court giving Abraham-Louis Breguet unlimited time and budget to make whatever watch he liked. Given that opportunity, what would you make? Another good line concerns Elinor Smith, the youngest person in the world to become a certified pilot, who set various records in the 1920s and 1930s with Longines timekeepers. The New York Times was so sure one of her challenges would end in disaster they wrote her obituary – 80 years too early. You say ‘I like to think we’d have got on’.Hands of Time” is Rebecca Struthers memoir of her experience as a watchmaker – or perhaps more accurately, as a horologist. It’s definitely a thing of interest. One thing Britain has done very well, historically, is design and trendsetting. Whether that’s watches or fashion… music, film, culture, we do that well. So we already have an audience of people interested in what British designers and makers are doing. And some brands are doing an amazing job of getting out there. What Bremont are doing is phenomenal. I think 70 per cent is made in the UK now. ‘The Wing’ [Bremont’s state-of-the-art 35,000 sq ft manufacturing centre in the Chiltern Valley] is absolutely incredible. To see a factory that size outside Switzerland or Germany, and that many people being employed in the UK making watches, is just incredible. It’s what we should have been doing 150 years ago. Had we have done, maybe we wouldn’t have lost the industry. 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? This point of difference has been both a blessing and a curse – as the antiquarian horologist makes plain in her fantastic debut book Hands of Time: A Watchmaker’s History of Time. Part-memoir, part-investigation into the history, art and science of watchmaking and a complete meditation on humankind’s relationship with time. How it has shaped our attitudes to work, to leisure, to trade and to mortality.

However, I can't help but feel a tinge of sadness that the book was relatively short. Its captivating content left me yearning for more, and I'm seriously contemplating listening to it again. In fact, I was considering canceling my Audible subscription, but fortunately, I had a remaining credit which I wisely used to prebook this gem. It turned out to be an incredibly worthwhile investment. 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. I’m not about huge numbers of complications. I think it gets to a point where it’s a bit more of a scientific instrument than it is a watch. I like something that can tell the time really cleanly. I love moon phases. My favourite complication is probably a power reserve. We’ve been talking about doing an hourly chime. Nothing too excessive. Bookshop.org: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/hands-of-time-a-watchmaker-s-history-of-time-rebecca-struthers/7386594?ean=9781529339031If you're someone who appreciates learning about the art of craftsmanship and the wonders of engineering, especially through shows on the History Channel, then this book is a must-read for you. 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. A personal history of timekeeping, unfortunately more focused on her own history than on the timekeeping mechanisms.