Rebecca Struthers | |
---|---|
Born | 1985or1986(age 37–38) |
Nationality | British |
Spouse | Craig Struthers (m. 2012) |
Awards | Heritage Crafts Association President's Award |
Website | strutherswatchmakers |
Rebecca Struthers (born 1985or1986) [1] is an English watchmaker, historian, author, engineer, and gemmologist. [1] [2] [3] She works with her husband, Craig, who is a master watchmaker. [1] Their watchmaking studio is in Leek, Staffordshire, after moving from the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. The Telegraph describes Struthers and her husband with "very few people in the world [have] this level of skill". [3] She won the Heritage Crafts award in 2021, presented by King Charles III. She is the only practising watchmaker in the United Kingdom with a PhD in horology. [1]
Struthers and her now husband, Craig went to Birmingham City University. Struthers originally studied goldsmithing and then changed to watchmaking, while Craig studied horology. [3] In 2017, she got a doctorate in horology. [4] [5] The watchmaking course that the two took no longer exists. [1] After graduating from university, Struthers moved to London to work in auction houses, doing restoring and watch dealing. After moving to Birmingham, she and her husband started working in their workshop in 2012 which is in the Jewellery Quarter. They initially only did restoration in watches from before 1960, and their contracts initially came from the auction house until word spread. [3] They restore and remake watch movements, making most of the watch parts themselves. [1] They won a Design Innovation Award on a pendant they named Stella, which was based on a 1960s movement. It was housed in an orb of rock crystal suspended within a platinum gimbal. Struthers has spoken on Radio 4. In 2021 King Charles III presented Rebecca and Craig with the Heritage Crafts Association President's Award, including a £3,000 bursary. The two are using this to create a free educational watchmaking resource, Watchmakers' Café. [3]
In May 2023 she released a book about the history of time in 2023, named Hands of Time. [3] [4] It was delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, [4] and has 288 pages and was published in June in the United States by Hodder & Stoughton. [2] The book talks about the history of timekeeping devices, from Egyptian water clocks to the Apple Watch, [3] and John Wilter, a name found on watch forgeries. [4] Her husband illustrated the book. [4] She finished her PhD thesis in 2017 and wanted to turn it into a book, but had difficulty finding a publisher interested in horology. [5]
The Struthers made their own movement from scratch, named Project 248. [3] They make around two or three tailor watches per year. One of their watches, the Kingsley Watch, sells for at least £48,000. [1]
Struthers described her experience as a young female watchmaker as a hindrance at the start of her career. She said that later on in her career it "swung in the opposite way," saying that being a minority makes it easier to be noticed. [4]
After graduating from university, Struthers and her now husband moved to London separately. In 2012 the two moved to Birmingham to set up shop, which was their house until 2022. Struthers married Craig in 2012. [3] The two have a Staffie dog named Archie. [3] She has tattoos, and is a fan of Casio watches. [4]
Abraham-Louis Breguet, born in Neuchâtel, then a Prussian principality, was a horologist who made many innovations in the course of a career in watchmaking industry. He was the founder of the Breguet company, which is now the luxury watch division of the Swiss Swatch Group.
Horology is the study of the measurement of time. Clocks, watches, clockwork, sundials, hourglasses, clepsydras, timers, time recorders, marine chronometers, and atomic clocks are all examples of instruments used to measure time. In current usage, horology refers mainly to the study of mechanical time-keeping devices, while chronometry more broadly includes electronic devices that have largely supplanted mechanical clocks for the best accuracy and precision in time-keeping.
A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their parts, by hand. Modern watchmakers, when required to repair older watches, for which replacement parts may not be available, must have fabrication skills, and can typically manufacture replacements for many of the parts found in a watch. The term clockmaker refers to an equivalent occupation specializing in clocks.
IWC International Watch Co. AG, founded International Watch Company, better known as IWC Schaffhausen, is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Originally founded in Switzerland by American watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones in 1868, the company was transferred to the Rauschenbach family in 1880 after bankruptcy and has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group since 2000.
Aaron Lufkin Dennison was an American watchmaker and businessman who founded a number of companies.
Patek Philippe SA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer, located in the Canton of Geneva and the Vallée de Joux. Established in 1839, it is named after two of its founders, Antoni Patek and Adrien Philippe. Since 1932, the company has been owned by the Stern family in Switzerland and remains the last family-owned independent watch manufacturer in Geneva. Patek Philippe is one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world with an uninterrupted watchmaking history since its founding. It designs and manufactures timepieces as well as movements, including some of the most complicated mechanical watches. The company maintains over 400 retail locations globally and over a dozen distribution centers across Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania. In 2001, it opened the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.
Vacheron Constantin SA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer founded in 1755. Since 1996, it has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group. Vacheron Constantin is one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world with an uninterrupted watchmaking history since its foundation in 1755. It employs around 1,200 people worldwide as of 2018, most of whom are based in the company's manufacturing plants in the Canton of Geneva and Vallée de Joux in Switzerland.
Piaget SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker and jeweller. Founded in 1874 by Georges Piaget in the village of La Côte-aux-Fées, Piaget is currently a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont group.
The Clockmakers’ Museum in London, England, is believed to be the oldest collection specifically of clocks and watches in the world. The collection belongs to and is administered by the Clockmakers’ Charity, affiliated to the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, founded in 1631 by Royal Charter. Since 2015 it has been housed in a gallery provided by the Science Museum in South Kensington, having formerly been located in the Guildhall complex in the City of London since 1874, where it first opened to the public. Admission is free.
George Daniels, CBE, FBHI, FSA, AHCI was an English horologist who was considered by some to be one of the best in the world in the field of luxury mechanical watches and timepieces during his lifetime. He was a watchmaker who built complete watches by hand. But it was his creation of the coaxial escapement for which he is most remembered. The movement, which theoretically removed the need to add a lubricant, has been used by Omega in most of their collections since 1999 with the exception of the Speedmaster Moonwatch.
The American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute (AWCI) is a not-for-profit trade association based in the United States that is dedicated to the advancement of the modern watch industry, from which it receives a significant portion of its funding. While the AWCI is an American organization, it also has members throughout the world.
Roger Dubuis is a Swiss watch manufacturer of luxury watches based in Geneva, Switzerland. The company was founded by Roger Dubuis and Carlos Dias in 1995.
Glashütte Original is a German producer of luxury watches founded in 1994 by the privatization of VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe (GUB), an East German conglomerate formed in 1951 from the watch companies based in Glashütte. Glashütte Original uses its own movements, and has 10 proprietary movement innovations. Glashütte Original is currently owned by The Swatch Group.
The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) is the Swiss watch industry's leading trade association, headquartered in Bienne, Switzerland. The Federation is a private, professional and non-profit association.
Maîtres du Temps is a Swiss watch company. Founded in 2005 by Steven Holtzman, the brand is based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The brand launched in Geneva in 2008 with Chapter One, a watch developed by Christophe Claret, Roger Dubuis and Peter Speake-Marin.
Roger W. Smith OBE is a British independent watchmaker. Smith was a Bronze Medallist of the British Horological Institute.
Arcadia Watches is a Swiss brand of luxury watches established in 1858. In 1968, the brand ceased due to a decline caused by the introduction of quartz movements. It was relaunched in 2007 by Claude Sanz, owner and President of Maison Bunter based in Geneva, and the first new Arcadia watch, the AC01, entered the market in 2010.
Czapek & Cie. is a manufacturer of fine Swiss watches founded in 1845 in Geneva. It is most noted for its bespoke timepieces manufactured for the European nobility in the 19th century.
The Horological Society of New York (HSNY) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the art and science of horology.
John Wilter was an 18th century watchmaker who had his name used ficticiously on Dutch forgeries of English watches. The majority of the watches bearing his name are Dutch forgeries, but there are higher quality ones that he made himself. The Dutch forgeries undercut competitors from London by about 50%. Some have spelling mistakes such as 'John Vilter'. The British Museum lists his activity dates as between 1760 and 1784.