What a watchmaker can teach us about time: The Rebecca Struthers Interview
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 29. 06. 2024
- In this episode, Dr Rebecca Struthers tells us about her new book, The Hands of Time: A Watchmaker's History (of time). In this interview, Rebecca discusses her work and how it connects to our understanding of time.
đ Get Rebecca's book: www.amazon.com/Hands-Time-Wat...
Dr Rebecca Struthers is a multi-award-winning designer, watchmaker, and historian;
she is half of the founding husband and wife team behind Struthers Watchmakers studio and workshops. Rebecca uses traditional methods, materials and techniques in the restoration of vintage and antique watches as well as the production of her own. She is also the first watchmaker in British history to earn a PhD in horology (which is the study and measurement of time).
Rebecca is also an active campaigner in the preservation of endangered heritage skills in the watch, clock, and jewellery trades along with the improvement of diversity within her discipline.
And on top of all that, sheâs written a fabulously engrossing book entitled, âThe Hands of Time, a watchmakerâs historyâ.
00:00 Intro to The Rebecca Struthers Interview
01:59 Hands of time quiz
03:50 Hands of Time: history of time through the incredible objects built to measure it and what this tells us about how we perceive time
05:30 Tips for creativity and following a craft
07:07 Who should read this book? (Probably you)
09:30 Introduction of mechanical clocks
22:00 Chronometers and the Harrison Longitudinal Clock
28:30 "Who controls the clock"?The power of applying the analytical lens of time to social, political and cultural development, and
32:00 "Time guilt" - is it time to think again about how we think about time?
35:40 The most influential watchmaker of all time
40:30 Rebecca's favourite watch of all time
45:30 Core skills of a watchmaker
49:30 What's the process of making a new watch?
51:00 Only use materials that are worthy of your time and effort
52:00 The concept of a "complication" in watchmaking
55:00 What's next for highly skilled watchmakers and for time itself?
đ LINKS
Struthers Watchmakers: www.strutherswatchmakers.co.uk/
đ CREDITS
đ¶ Ours For The Making Theme: Fuzzy Steppenwolf
đž Additional pictures: Andy Pilsbury; Asia Werbel; Hodder; Harper
đNTS
Views: 129,289
Subs: 506
Really enjoyed this wide-ranging conversation with Rebecca. Her love of what she does (making and restoring watches + watch history) shines through in so many ways. There's a lot of great advice for how to nurture your creativity, stories from history of watches and how they've shaped our perception and understanding of time and travel (think longitudinal prize for navigation, maps etc), plus a glimpse of how Rebecca sees our perception of time being transformed in the not too distant future (right at the end!). Hope you enjoy the conversation and pictures from the book, illustrated by Rebecca's husband, Craig.
Fantastic interview with an interesting and thoughtful perspective on the history of learning how to tell time by our own creationsâŠand in that act have fallen in love with our objects of timekeeping. So much heart from Ms. Struthers, and optimism for the future of watchmaking.
This blew me away. All I wanna do is study time now. Maybe a doctorate ? Thankyou Rebecca. You have given me direction now.
Glad you enjoyed the conversation and found it so inspiring!
A fascinating and enchanting interview with Rebecca masterfully conducted by James. I thank you both. My own copy of Rebecca's book arrived this afternoon and I look forward to reading it. Thank you and I appreciate your efforts.
Thank you very much @wellsmarshall2297 for watching and taking the time to leave such a kind comment. I'm so pleased you enjoyed the conversation and I hope you enjoy Rebecca's book! With best wishes, James.
Ordered it already. I can't wait. Hehe. Where's that time dilation when you need it. đ
As Rebecca mentions, in the 1780s Breguet came to London. But not generally known is that he met John Arnold who gave him information about:-
Watch jewelling
Compenation balances
Floating balances
Detent escapements
Non ferrous balance springs ie those of gold
The overcoil, enabling isochronal adjustment in watches
The idea of theTourbillon
None of the above were invented by Breguet, so IMHO it was Arnold who made the greatest contribution to watchmaking.
This is one of the best video/podcasts I have listened to for ages! I am very interested in horology and this is brilliant. I will be buying the book!
Thank you very much for your kind comment. So glad you enjoyed the conversation - and I hope you enjoy the book!
Could we hear a composition of the sonorific watches. Any DJ's into horology. 55:32
Time can be seen as a perception to articulate the world of a watchmaker with all its complexities and abstraction I question the viability of the pursuit the result of one's effort has to do the talking I feel
My father was a Watchmaker to trade; I chose Musical Instruments đ