Rebecca Struthers: what restoration teaches a watchmaker

Two watchmakers, four hands and an 8mm lathe. Project 248 puts the scale of its ambition in its name: an entire watch approached through the work of a small workshop. For this Women & Watches installment, it also offers a useful way into Rebecca Struthers’s contribution to contemporary watchmaking. Begin with the work. Struthers: Project 248 editions

Her official biography identifies research, design, development and finishing among the areas she leads at Struthers Watchmakers. She initially trained in jewellery and silversmithing before turning toward horology. That combination gives us a more revealing starting point than a list of records or superlatives: how does knowledge of older objects become the ability to make something new? Struthers: Rebecca Struthers

The education inside a repair

Rebecca and Craig Struthers’s account of Project 248 begins with their restoration of vintage and antique watches. Making replacement components for existing mechanisms developed skills they could eventually apply to their own. The workshop completed its first Project 248 watches in 2023. Struthers: The story

There is a demanding idea here for anyone interested in craft. An old object contains decisions as well as parts. Before changing it, a restorer must ask what belongs to its design and what happened later. Creating a new object adds another question: which of those inherited decisions still deserves a place?

Project 248 makes that question unusually concrete. For the First Edition, the makers report that they produced every component in-house except the jewels, hairspring and mainspring, using traditional techniques and heritage machinery. The exceptions matter. A useful account of handcraft should tell us where the work was done, including where specialist contributions were needed. Struthers: Project 248 editions

History that still has a job

Consider the First Edition’s winding and setting mechanism. In their December 2023 workshop account, the Struthers explained that they adapted a traditional English-style rocking-bar arrangement so the wearer could both wind the watch and set its hands through the crown, rather than using a separate pin-setting arrangement. A historical mechanism became a practical design decision about operating the watch. Struthers: First Project 248 watches

That is a more interesting encounter with the past than simply borrowing the appearance of an old dial. It invites a reader to ask what was retained, what was changed and why. The answers give traditional watchmaking a present tense.

The work has continued to change. In an April 2026 update, the workshop reported that a revised three-quarter plate layout had allowed a slightly thinner movement. It also described a new winding-and-setting mechanism combining a nineteenth-century design with a contemporary system. These are the makers’ descriptions of their development work; they do not, by themselves, establish superior timekeeping or durability. Struthers: Developing the calibre

Give the contribution a name

Recognizing Rebecca’s role means being precise about it. Research, development, design and finishing are substantive parts of making a watch. Project 248 is also a shared undertaking with Craig. Keeping both facts in view allows us to discuss an individual contribution without turning a partnership into a solitary-genius story.

Heritage Crafts recognized Rebecca with its 2021 President’s Award for Endangered Crafts. That recognition offers another reason to look closely at the actual skills involved, beyond the finished object’s desirability. Heritage Crafts: Award announcement

For a collector, the useful question may be what a watch allows us to understand about its making. A familiar-looking crown can conceal a thoughtful revision. An explicit exception to an in-house claim can make the claim more informative. And a woman’s contribution becomes easier to recognize when we can name the work.

Discussion question: If you could ask a watchmaker to explain one inherited design choice they kept or changed, which part of the watch would you choose?