A personal history of timekeeping, unfortunately more focused on her own history than on the timekeeping mechanisms. 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. 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. 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.

My book is] not just watches, it’s time. And that’s a really fascinating subject. It affects us all, every day. So I’m pairing [watches] with these wider stories. [For example] comparing Hans Wilsdorf to what Albert Einstein was doing, as the two men who revolutionised our relationship with time and the 20 th Century in two very different ways. And how these two concepts relate to each other. 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. 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. History can sneak up on you. For instance, I had no idea I would read a book about watchmaking this year. I am equally as surprised that I loved it. I was somewhat expecting more than a memoir and more of a history of time measuring devices and watches, because the book’s subtitle states: “How humanity’s most profound technical achievement tells the story of time itself.” This was not the case.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. I spend whole days working on mechanisms which can contain hundreds of tiny components. Each of them has a specific task to perform. Every morning when I sit at my bench, it is an adventure into a new timepiece with its own history to lose myself in. And in their history, we can find the history of time itself. The invention of timepieces 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. 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?

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. 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.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? 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? Oh, beautiful, yeah. When you get a good one with really lovely acoustics it gives you goosebumps. They’re lovely. Brings up very interesting points about human history. I like that the book doesn't quite make the claim that we were shaped by the discovery of horology, but more that it reflects out world and society where it is. There are a ton of super well researched insights and I loved the historical tie-ins. It's easy to imagine Obama wearing a Rolex, but difficult to imagine Napoleon wearing a Breguet. Awesome to humanize these mythical figures a bit. She is very knowledgeable and doesn't bog the book down with too much over technicalities.