This event has finished Took place on: Wednesday, 28th Nov 2018
Husband-and-wife team of watchmaker and antiquarian horologist, Craig and Rebecca Struthers, will discuss the trials and tribulations of founding an English watchmaking studio in the middle of a recession and the importance of historical research in contemporary making. The Struthers met in 2004 whilst training as watchmakers at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. Between them, they are qualified in watchmaking, jewellery, silversmithing, illustrators, gemmology and design history.
In 2017, Rebecca became the first watchmaker in British history to earn a PhD in horology examining fakes, forgeries and the emergence of mass production in the European watch industry during the eighteenth century. The study of antiquarian horology plays an integral role in the Struthers' approach to watchmaking with both Craig and Rebecca training in vintage and antique restoration before founding their first workshop with just a £15,000 bank loan in 2012. The Struthers will discuss how, by studying these watches in detail, they have started to reform the networks of allied craftspeople needed to recreate the commercial production of watch components in Britain.
Their first in-house movement, nicknamed Project 248 after the two watchmakers creating it, their four hands and the 8mm lathe that will be crucial in its manufacture; their movement is inspired by one of the first machine-made English ebauches dating back to the 1880s. The Struthers will be recreating the English lever escapement and rocking bar keyless work using a combination of nineteenth century equipment and twenty-first century materials. Predominantly relying on pre-1960s equipment, the Struthers watchmaking studio and workshops are based in the Georgian former property of industrialist James Watt FRS FRSE (b. 1736 d. 1819), in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham.
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This event has finished Took place on: Wednesday, 28th Nov 2018
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2018-11-28 2018-11-28 Europe/London Back to the future; 19th century watchmaking by 21st century watchmakers Craig and Rebecca Struthers will discuss the challenges of founding an English watchmaking studio in the middle of a recession and the importance of historical research in contemporary making. https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/calendar/2018/11/28/back-to-the-future-19th-century-watchmaking-by-21st-century-watchmakers-184747 City University London,Northampton Square,London,Location
City University London,
London,
EC1V 0HB
Nearest tube and train stations to City University London
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