Culture | Pocket rockets

The evolution of watches reflects changing relations with time

In “Hands of Time”, Rebecca Struthers also shows how it has been intertwined with history

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - NOVEMBER 12: A museum employee displays the recently recovered gold and rock-crystal pocket watch made for the French queen Marie Antoinette, at the L. A. Meyer Museum of Islamic Art on November 12, 2007 in Jerusalem, Israel. The pocket watch, made by the 18th century French watchmaker Abraham Louis Breguet, was among a priceless collection of 40 rare clocks recovered recently by the museum after they were stolen nearly 25 years ago. Marie Antoinette was best remembered for her legendary excesses during her lifetime, and for her death when she was executed by guillotine at the height of the French Revolution in 1793. (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images)

Hands of Time. By Rebecca Struthers. Hodder & Stoughton; 288 pages; £22. To be published in America by Harper in June; $35

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Pocket rockets”

Culture May 6th 2023

From the May 6th 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition
Reuse this content

More from Culture

Theatre audience standing in formal attire, applauding.

Ovation inflation has spread from Broadway to London’s West End

Why do dud plays get standing ovations?

Christ and the Loving Soul, Illustration from Simon Critchley On Misticism

Are mystics kooks or valuable disrupters?

A realist’s refreshing take on mysticism

Little Red Riding Hood with the wolf, disguised as her grandmother. Illustration by Arthur Rackham (1867-1939), c1909.

Sex and Snow White: how Grimm should children’s books be?

The German authors suggest very, but today trends run the opposite way

Jimmy Lai’s trial is a headline-worthy example of injustice

A new biography aims to keep the public’s attention on the pro-democracy tycoon

Millennials and Gen Z are falling hard for stuffed animals

Plushies are cute, cuddly and costly

Ten years after the Charlie Hebdo attack, satire is under siege

Public support is waning for the right to offend