The creation of your own completely in-house watch is the pinnacle of any watchmaker’s career.
In 2023, British husband-and-wife watchmakers, Craig and Rebecca Struthers, achieved this goal and completed the first in a series of some of the most rare and handcrafted timepieces being made in the world today.
Behind the scenes – making Project 248
After years spent restoring vintage and antique watches, the Struthers realised they’d built up the skills to make virtually every component for other people’s watches and it was time to create them for their own.
All restorers are historians, and this experience enabled the Struthers to cherry pick their favourite designs from the last 500 years of watchmaking history to feed into their first in-house movement. Project 248 picks up where the British industry left off in the late nineteenth century featuring the previously commercially extinct English lever escapement, which was replaced by the Swiss lever in the twentieth century.
The plates of the first series were crafted from German silver, in a nod to south Germany watchmaking from the early twentieth century. The shock protection was a reverse engineered fully functional parachute setting as designed by Paris-based Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1790. The design of the balance references the work of George Daniels and the rocking bar keyless work to Derek Pratt.
As restorers, the Struthers honed their craft using a combination of traditional hand skills, centuries old techniques and historic machinery dating from across the last 200 years. Many of their old machines have been restored and repurposed by their watchmakers, they’re all unique characters, and all have their own names in respect of the invaluable role they play as our inanimate workforce. There’s Heidi, one of our 1960s 8mm East German AZ lathes and her sister Helga, who arrived incomplete and was customised to a wheel cutting lathe. Barney is a 10mm Pultra lathe used to turn and form precious metal watch cases on boxwood. Albert the Wolf Jann milling machine is over a century old.
Uniting masters of craft
To create an object that has integrity and quality throughout, Craig and Rebecca proudly work with a network of extraordinary craftspeople.
The Struthers are watchmakers and will never have skills of engravers, enamellers, wood or leather workers who have dedicated their lives to excellence in their craft in the same way the Struthers have to theirs.
Mirroring the same approach taken by watchmakers took in centuries gone by, the Struthers seek out some of the finest craftspeople from around the world to collaborate with on their pieces. Bringing together this creative network to finish each unique piece is an integral part of the creative process with has the commissioner of each watch at its heart.
Follow the journey
Our build book and waiting list for 248 is currently closed. Please subscribe to our mailing list or follow us on Instagram for alerts on when our build book opens again.
If you have any questions about Struthers Watchmakers’s in-house movement you are very welcome to contact us on the form below.