Canberra man builds a mechanical watch by hand, after a deadly illness forced him to reinvent his life

Reuben Schoots sits barely visible behind a wall of antique clocks — heavy longcase pendulum pieces, ornate French marble clocks adorned with baroque sculptures and naked timepieces without cases or dials, their movements exposed.

None of the clocks are ticking.

The 27-year-old works in silence because he is working by hand, at a scale of microns, on the pieces of a mechanical watch he began two-and-a-half years ago.

When he made its first part, he knew almost nothing about horology, the study of timekeeping.

It was an arcane craft he had just begun to delve into, after becoming seriously ill.

Once an athletic man working as a barista and studying nutrition at university, Reuben became sick from an unknown illness he contracted during an…