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”

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