Book Review: Hands Of Time

Hands Of Time – The book by Rebecca Struthers provides a striking account of watches, their history, and their social impact.

“Watches not only measure time, they are a manifestation of time—signifiers of the most precious thing we have,” writes the author.

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 the author 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.

The author 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.”