I think there are so few of us that we're not really competitors in a way. We need each other because I hate saying no to someone if we don't have the time to restore something and just sending them off into the ether. So they're useful people to have around. And some of them we work with actively. There's only one case maker who will make watch cases for existing movements. He had a really beautiful pocket watch movement that's its case of being scrapped at some point in history for the gold or silver. Yeah, there's only one that I know that would help you with that. The word horology is H-O-R-L-O-G
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.