Jonathan Betts

Who is Jonathan Betts?

Jonathan Betts MBE is Senior Specialist in horology at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, a horological scholar and author, and an expert on the first marine timekeepers created by John Harrison in the middle of the 18th century.

From a family of retail watchmakers and jewellers, he took the British Horological Institute finals in technical horology in 1975 he was awarded the Tremayne National Prize for Practical Watchmaking. For the following five years, he practised as a self-employed horology conservator. In 1980 he was appointed Senior Horology Conservator at the National Maritime Museum and in 1989 was presented the museum's Callender Award for his contribution to horological conservation. He was appointed Curator of Horology in 1990 and became Senior Specialist in 2001.

He is the biographer of Rupert Gould, the restorer of the Harrison timekeepers. The biography was published in 2006 by Oxford University Press under the title Time Restored: The Harrison Timekeepers and RT Gould, the Man Who Knew Everything.

In 2002 he was awarded the Clockmakers' Company's Harrison Gold Medal and the British Horological Institute's Barett Medal in 2008, and is a Huntington Fellow at the Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, of the British Horological Institute, and of the International Institute of Conservation.