The husband and wife team Craig and Rebecca Struthers restore antique and vintage timepieces and design and build their own watches.

The workshop is based in a building that used to belong to James Watt, the inventor and engineer. ‘Being a Brummie who lived down the road and grew up on tales of James Watt and Matthew Boulton – to be working on the site of somewhere so important – this building is a special place to be,’ said Rebecca.

A vintage Omega movement that has been recommissioned at the Struthers’ workshop.

The couple make their own timepieces but still do restorations. ‘We continue with the restoration work, which is our bread and butter and keeps us afloat. Each new commission can take up to two years and while you’re doing all the research and development, things you’re not getting paid for, you need to be doing something else to keep you going until the finished piece is done.’ said Craig.

Rebecca was just 17 when she started training as a jeweller and silversmith. Since then, she has successfully completed joint British Horological Institute and HND horology courses, a DGA in diamond grading and holds a masters degree in history of art and design, which she tailored to antiquarian horology as no such specialist course existed in the UK at the time. In 2017, she became the first watchmaker in British history to earn a PhD in horology.

Design renderings of some of their watch projects, including the company’s latest, called Project 248, which is their first in-house movement. The project will take two years to come to fruition and they will collaborate with about 30 other craftspeople to make the watch.

Project 248 was created from the concept of two minds, four hands and an 8mm lathe (their first lathe). ‘That’s how we got going and what started out as a necessity for us because we just couldn’t afford new kit. We love working with these machines and we have to restore all the machines as well before can start using them to make watches. They’re all characters and it really informs our creative process. Without them our watches wouldn’t look the same. We’ve got a unique identity now and we’d have lost such a lot if we’d done things differently,’ said Rebecca.

However, the couple worry about the future of the Jewellery Quarter, which has been described by English Heritage as a ‘national treasure’. Derelict buildings have been turned into apartments and remaining businesses face a rise in rents from landlords or objections from new neighbours about the noise their factories and workshops make.

During a recent exhibition they curated, Craig and Rebecca met many local residents who had lived in the Jewellery Quarter for years who said they hadn’t known anything was actually made there. ‘They just thought it was a cute name or something. They see the jewellery shops and just think the name comes from them. They don’t realise that the shops only appeared in the 1980s, before that it was just manufacturing, at one time the largest centre of jewellery manufacturing in the world.’

‘We’re all interdependent, that’s how the Jewellery Quarter traditionally worked. You had your engraver based next to your goldsmith next to your setter next to your mounter and your caster, and they all send work between each other.’

The couple say there is a great community spirit in the area. Individually the companies are small with low turnovers and few employees, but as a collective they rely on each other and benefit from their proximity. If that network disappears it could cause problems.

‘There’s a non-ferrous metal stockist down the road and there’s nothing they don’t know about metal and we can simply walk down to their workshop and explain we’re trying to make something with certain properties and a particular size and ask them what they recommend, but there’s a danger that those connections will be lost.’Pictured: A collection of antique ruby and sapphire watch jewels

The Struthers’ apprentice Heather Fisher works on the restoration of a dash clock for a 1930s Sunbeam motor car. Heather joined during her final year of a BA in horology and was awarded an apprenticeship by the Queen Elizabeth scholarship trust, which allows her to continue working there full time.

‘Where there used to be hundreds of people doing these trades, now there’s very few and some are retiring and not training anyone. It’s difficult because first you need to find a young person who is passionate about the trade, but then how do you afford them and how do you pay them while they’re not making you any money? It’s a huge commitment and, though you can get apprenticeship funding, it’s all at the minimum rate of just over £3 per hour. You could earn more working behind a supermarket till than you could training to be a master craftsperson and I think that is a sad state of affairs.’

Craig at the bench restoring a 1920s Rolex Rebberg wristwatch.

Most of Struthers’ clients are in the UK, but slowly the customer base is extending to Europe and beyond. Rebecca says their clients understand the process and get involved. ‘They come to the workshop and we sometimes go and visit them or we’ll email them an update or a photograph of part of their watch being made or restored.’

Craig discovered watchmaking in 2004 after years spent playing with classic cars, motorbikes and scooters. Studying at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design’s school of jewellery, he earned a reputation for having incredible patience working on complex repairs for complicated antique watches.

Craig working with a German Wolf Jaan milling machine, nicknamed Albert, which dates from about 1910.

Turning out a watch case bezel using Barney, an English-made, 10mm Pultra lathe from the 1950s. Craig says there is a tendency nowadays to ditch the hand-made side of things and look towards the latest technology. ‘It would be much better if people could mix the two because then you’d get the heart and soul of creators involved and then the machine taking out some of the bits that aren’t necessarily needed to be done by hand.’

Rebecca adds: ‘We’re losing a lot of traditional skills in this industry and within the jewellery industry and other heritage crafts, simple things like soldering, saw piercing and filing. It sounds silly but people either don’t know how to or haven’t got the patience to sit down all day filing something or working on one task all day. Some of these skills take seven to 10 years to learn to the level required to be even close to being a master.

A collection of handmade watchmaker’s apprentice tools from the 1870s that the Struthers adapt to use.

The company’s first lathe, an 8mm nicknamed Ray, after the man who mentored Craig after he graduated. ‘Ray worked at Mercer’s, the chronometer makers, and used to come once a week to the basement workshop I had then and give me little insights and the input of his 60 years in the trade.

Rebecca says that becoming an independent watchmaker isn’t about the financial rewards. ‘I always say to students that if you want to make a lot of money don’t become an independent watchmaker, but what you will get is paid in love and passion for the craft and being excited to go to work every day.’ Pictured: A hairspring and collet needing restoration