Rebecca StruthersHands of Time: A Watchmaker's History

I had read somewhere that the author's intent was to have a book for non-watchmakers so that they may better appreciate the trade. As a hobbiest, I was able to follow along, and some of the information was little basic, but I am hesitant to recommend that my non-watchmaking partner read it, as it does feel a little too technical? That said, there's a huge glossary, so someone looking to understand the technical side of it should be able to. I loved the history side of things, and learned a fair bit that I hadn't heard before from the internet, YouTube, etc..

I have a collection of nine books on watches and horology and this one stands out as one of the best. I liked it so much that I originally bought it as a Kindle book, but before I'd even finished it, I ordered it in hardback as I wanted it in my library.First, I'll tell you what it's not because it's not for everybody. It doesn't have great descriptions of how watches work or details about sophisticated complications. There are no color photographs of watches, only drawings done very well by her husband. There are better books for those things.What it is is a very simple, well-written work with a somewhat detailed history of horology, not just watches. Rebecca Struthers mentions the earliest known horological device from 44,000 years ago. That's not a typo! She cleverly intertwines her and her husband's experience of becoming independent watchmakers in Great Britain with horological topics as well as some of the challenges they face in their craft. She even has a great sense of humor, something totally lacking in any of the other watch-related books I've read.Other than the more technical sections, Hands of Time reads like a thoroughly enjoyable novel, fun to sit and read. I will definitely reread it someday. I highly recommend it.

I can’t speak highly enough about what a wonderful history of timekeeping this book is. The author is a terrific writer who clearly knows her craft (watchmaker) as well as the history of her craft. Unfortunately we live in an age where everything is politicized, including, apparently, the history of timekeepers. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, I just wish the author had kept strictly to the topic of her book. Injecting politics into every aspect of our lives is the opposite of helpful to our day to day existence and the sheer entertainment of reading this otherwise fascinating book (that doesn’t need to get political) gets tainted when politics are unnecessarily injected. Aside from that it’s a really good book. But it would have been truly stellar without the politics.

This book explores keeping track of time and how it changed society from prehistoric calendar sticks to today's atomic clocks.She writes of the early water clocks, candle clocks and sand clocks. Some of these were extremely intricate and animated, for an example an elephant clock with moving riders.She moves on to the mechanical clocks of all kinds from town public towers to the eventual development of the wrist watch. There is a lot of detail and many side stories of the watch makers and customers. Enjoyable

Easy to read

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this book.The historical perspective of “time” from a watchmaker’s vantage point.

The book is composed of stories and meditations that are somehow related to the history of watches. There is no central thesis and if you want to learn how watches work, you will find better explanations in Wikipedia. Some of the stories refer to the personal life of the author. The style is lovely and some of the stories are quite interesting.

I have started to read this book just because i am huge mechanical watch enthusiast and I was hoping to learn more about wristwatches and their history.What I have got from this book was unbelievable story about women whose whole life was dedicated to this old and even romantic practice of watch reparing and watch making, awesome and really amazing history of measuring time and ofcourse watches and amazing lesson about cherising our time on this Earth.One of the best books that I have ever read in my life!