I went to a very academic school. We were very much about pursuing careers in serious subjects like science and mathematics. But I'm also very creative and I really struggled not having a creative side to what I do. There was a college that taught it and I was an academic, my dad, leader recommended it. He was a jeweller. It just happened to be down the road. The way we're taught in the UK is that art and science are very separate subjects.
Called "a poem in clockwork," the self-winding Breguet watch made for Marie Antoinette was meant to be the most beautiful example of mechanical art in the world. Yet when she was imprisoned in the Tour du Temple, she wanted only a simple watch that would mark the passing of the hours until her meeting with the guillotine. Listen as Rebecca Struthers, the watchmaker, antiquarian horologist, and author of the Hands of Time talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about how our need to keep time has shaped watchmaking history, and how, in turn, the development of watches has shaped human culture and society. Other topics include the precise and painstaking craft of bespoke watchmaking and the challenge of restoring watches from another time.