Hands of Time: A Watchmaker´s History of Time by Rebecca Struthers is a journey through history, a comprehensive compendium, a rich historical reference book about time, clocks, movements, craft, material, significant inventions, and the people who made them.

Hands of Time: A Watchmaker’s History by Rebecca Struthers

The book immediately aroused my curiosity, taking me on the author’s journey, a journey that is very entertaining and lively. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in clocks, watches, watchmaking, and a profound engagement with horology. The book feels like watchmaking on every page, it lives, breathes, and smells of mechanical crafts. Hands of Time is full of anecdotes.

A Very Personal Twist

The structure and method of Hands of Time are historical. The perspective follows a walkthrough of horological history up to today. Chapters are occasionally commented on and evaluated politically. Most importantly, the book is very, very, very personal (especially Chapter 11 – “Eleventh Hour”). This chapter marks a twist and reveals a strong personal view of the author.

Hands of Time: A Watchmaker’s History by Rebecca Struthers

Rebecca Struthers repeatedly gives the reader a very open view of her life and work, as well as her goals and motivation all throughout the book. She describes her long and at times difficult journey in horology, and the very individual and unique creations of Struthers watchmakers.

This not a picture book and it does not present individual brands or, even more specifically, individual watches, and it stays out of some of the myths and controversies of our time (Everest, Mariana Trench, the first clock, etc.). However, it does describe some of the sad moments of more recent times (e.g., in the section on radio luminescent paint and the radium girls).

A Wonderful and Challenging Walk

Fantastic are the many beautiful illustrations (by Craig Struthers) throughout the book. Although Hands of Time is a historical reference book, it is not a strenuous (scientific) read. It is a wonderful and challenging walk through the history of time.

Hands of Time: A Watchmaker’s History by Rebecca Struthers

It takes the reader past all the great inventions and many well-known and famous names. And yet relatively unknown developments also appear, such as the story of the so-called myth of Dutch Forgery (from Rebecca Struthers’ academic work). Not everybody has read this publication, but here you can catch up as an abstract.

I was also very pleased to learn something about Rebecca and Craig Struthers’ Project 248, its background and intention.

————————————————————————————————————–