Meet Rebecca Struthers, the first master watchmaker in the UK to earn a PhD in horology

What led you to embark on a journey into watchmaking?

It’s all very serendipitous. The school I attended taught science and art as separate subjects and I had always loved the two. I did art for my Higher School Certificate and science in A-Levels because that’s what I thought was needed to secure a good career.

But I ended up dropping out of school to become a silversmith. It was during this time that I discovered watchmaking. I didn’t even know that was a job but upon visiting the workshops, I realised this was what I wanted to do.

To me, it was art and science, design and history—it covers it all, and you will never learn everything about it, which is what I love most. The more doors you open, the more you discover; it is a constant journey. 

How did the journey of establishing Struthers Watchmakers begin?

Craig and I had been dating for about a year, and I was struggling to find the right opportunity for me to grow. Craig suggested establishing our own workshop.

We left London for Birmingham and got married all in the same month. Craig is very artistic and I’m more technical and mathematical. We are like two jigsaw pieces that fit well together.

Tell us about some of your more interesting restoration projects in recent times. 

Someone came in with a watch owned by his father, a soldier shot in WW2. He was the last of the soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk and thought he had lost his watch.

When the nurse shook out his jacket, the watch fell out; it certainly looked as if it had been in a plane crash. The son wanted it restored just enough so he could wear it and pass it down to his children. I love working on projects like these and it was honestly quite emotional!

Tell us more about the bespoke part of the business.

Bespoke, or making new pieces, has actually taken over restoration in recent times although we will always do restoration because looking back to look forward is how we approach our design. In our mind, the most beautiful watches have already been made, so looking back at them is a great source of inspiration.

New watches are the other end of the spectrum. We make them in the hope that they will inspire new stories and generations to come.

We have quite a few female clients, and I don’t know how much that has to do with the fact that there’s a female watchmaker here. We’re currently creating a piece for a new mom who plans to pass it on to her daughter, so I’m designing with this in mind. This is why I refer a lot to my work in restoration, which tells me what it takes to make a watch that truly endures.

Is this act of passing on a heritage a deliberate thing on your part?

I’m unabashedly sentimental, and having tangible links to your family, to your history, is grounding. There’s a maternal instinct to not want something precious to rot away; I want to help them have a new life! All these old pieces have an incredible story but even the ones where we don’t know their pedigree, you do feel a sense of responsibility for them. I don’t really see a lot of male restorers going quite this far.

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While we’ve been seeing an increase in women occupying leadership positions, it appears that there are considerably fewer women in technical roles. What is your take on this? 

Women have always been present in watchmaking but limited to the [lower] level. You still see this in Swiss watch maisons today; the master watchmakers are mostly men. When I was a student at a watchmaking school, I had to wear a uniform in men’s sizes as there weren’t any in women’s sizes!

I once trained at a watch company with 20,000 employees around the world but there were only three female watchmakers. Someone told me that there was little point in training women to be watchmakers as they would eventually leave to have a family. 

But I believe things will change as there are now many incredible women in senior leadership positions who are looking into
this issue. 

How do you perceive gender differentiation in watchmaking in terms of complications tailored for women versus those designed for men?

For a long time, I’ve been saying there’s no such thing as a men’s watch. There are unisex watches and women’s watches. Men tend to steer clear of smaller watches but women will wear them all.

When I was at GPHG a few years ago, one of the most extraordinary pieces was a jewellery watch. Of all the watches, it was the only one that would elicit a huge smile from every person who picked it up. No other watch did that. The common attitude toward women’s watches, which is to incorporate a quartz movement in what is otherwise a work of art, is outdated. 

What steps can be taken to reach a point where gender becomes irrelevant in this context?

Part of the problem is that brands haven’t had [the need] to market [their products] to women. If David Beckham wore a nice watch, most women wouldn’t mind wearing it too. But if a woman modelled a masculine watch, men would think that they couldn’t wear it.

Does this also mean making meaningful changes to how haute horlogerie is perceived as a formal vocation for both girls and boys?

Watchmaking on an educational level is a weird niche category of its own. I struggled to be accepted by other engineers, craftspeople, and designers. You get moved around because no one wants to take responsibility. But if you can tether [watchmaking] to something so it stands on its own, it would be wonderful. It would attract more students, yes, but it would also attract more girls [owing to its legitimacy]. 

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