Rebecca was just 16 when she applied to study a two-year course at the School of Jewellery at Birmingham City University. Back then, she had no idea that watchmaking was a career, but students studying horology, the art of making clocks and watches, suggested it might be a good fit for her. It was around this time, in 2004, that she first met Craig. He had begun a course run by the British Horological Institute (BHI) that was also based at the School of Jewellery.

A current BHI veteran and tutor, Alan Burtoft, tells me that there are just a handful of places in the UK where budding watch- and clockmakers can do this sort of course. There’s the British School of Watchmaking in Manchester and the BHI offers various programmes, including distance learning, for example. Then, there is a clock restoration course at West Dean College near Chichester and some classes offered by Epping Forest Horology Centre near London.

“It’s not a very well-known or advertised trade to go into,” admits Burtoft.

Rebecca found this out fairly quickly when she tried to find horology courses that weren’t based at Birmingham City University. “They were just like, ‘No, you can’t do horology here’,” she remembers.

She trained in various crafts useful to her trade, however – from diamond grading to silversmithing. And she says she was able to “tailor” a history of art and design masters to suit a horology theme in order to take her studies further. After that, she completed a PhD in horology as well.