There aren't many restorers left, able to work on particularly very high-end stuff and early stuff. The irony of horology is there is so little time to do what we do. It's not just in the UK as well - it's a global issue. Do you think is it 10 people or 1,050? Top-level restorers are less than 50. I could probably count on one hand, really top-end pocket watch restorers in the UK. Yeah. Most of them, yeah, we do know each other. We kind of have a circle that we send work between. So we're all so busy and there are not enough restorers, good high
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.