Book Of The Week - Watchmaking.

BBC Radio Four, 9:45am: three of five episodes left.

Hands Of Time, by Rebecca Struthers; read by Phoebe Pryce.

She and her husband are among the very few makers of mechanical watches still trading, and her book considers among other aspects, her own career from having trained as a silversmith, and some of the history of time-pieces and automata.

It's a fine tale, rather sad in places such as where she had had to scrap two of her early pieces of jewellery to raise rent money. Witty elsewhere, in describing the automata, and contrasting the clean-room conditions of Swiss, CNC-led watch-factories, with her and her husband in their own "more relaxed" workshop equipped with 'Helga' the German-made wheel-cutting engine, and their dog snoozing in the corner.

It's probably on the BBC 'Sounds' service, but I am also tempted to buy the book!

Heard the first episode, very interesting. Noel

The ultimate book for an engineer horologist has to be Watchmaking by George Daniels.

I have just bought the Daniels Watchmaking book, it looks like it will provide some very useful model engineering techniques even though I have no intention of making a watch.

I think this is two different "types" of book, so I'm afraid Bazyle's implied comparison is very wide of the mark..

It would seem George Daniels' describes how to make watches, written for those interested in how watches are made, or indeed wishing to make them.

Rebecca Struthers' book is not intended as a specialist reference-book. The author describes being a watchmaker, and various aspects of the history of clocks and watches.

All episodes available on BBC Sounds

I enjoyed Rebecca Struthers in a non-technical way, and also last night's Steam episode on Channel 5. It featured a Steam Launch, Stanley car, Brussels Tram, and a 9F. Both programs are evocative rather than engineering.

Don't expect anything on the merits of superheating. The 9F stops for an on-track picnic in the middle of a Yorkshire wilderness, and Dr Who remarks, "Three Men in a Bog". Only Montmorency the dog was missing...

Dave

George Daniels "Watchmaking" one of my best ever reads!

One of my favourites is "Repairing old Clocks and Watches" by Anthony Whiten, which he subtitles "Horology for the Hignorant". It's one of the very few technical books I have encountered which are worth reading for their own sake.

George

I've built a good few clocks in my home workshop over the years but also have an interest in watches with an evolving collection. The idea that is always at the back of my mind is building a watch. It's just a small clock after all.

Everything would need to be scaled down but otherwise nothing scary.

Feasible in a home workshop ? Anyone done it ?

Well, Roger Smith did.

It would not be feasible for my workshop but it's having the right equipment, tools and skill, not where the workshop is.

It's sobering to realise that the 18C watchmakers building exquisite pocket-watches, had to work in quite primitive conditions, too; by candlelight when daylight was insufficient, and when pretty well all buildings were often, damp, cold and draughty.