ebook – A Watchmaker’s Romance with Time by Amos van der Merwe

• Philipp Wagner was born in Vienna in 1933. His Jewish father joined the Austrian Resistance and died in Buchenwald in 1942. After attending school for only eight years, he was admitted to a watchmaker’s school, where he became fascinated by the concept of time. As a young man of twenty, he emigrated to South Africa in 1953 to represent the Buren Watch Company in East London.
• Life’s journey is never simple, and neither was his. A chance encounter paved the way for a career in Armscor, where his passion for perfection led to the establishment of a microengineering company bearing his name. It is here that he started researching the effect of gravity on time, which enabled him to detect gravitational disturbances. He is, quite possibly, the first man to prove the existence of gravitational waves.
• A Watchmaker’s Romance with Time tells the story of a boy growing up during troubled times; about a young man who refused to admit defeat when facing failure and it confirms that age is no obstacle to dreaming big. Now in his late eighties, Philipp Wagner is still actively researching gravity, dark matter and the origin of time.
• This biography is not a scholarly dissection of the science of invisible forces. It is a heart-warming account of the life of a dreamer. Against the background of work and science, Philipp Wagner pursued the quest to find the perfect love. It is possible that he has – at last – discovered the illusive emotion that gives meaning to the concept of Time.

Amos van der Merwe retired from his medical career to pursue his passion for writing. A Watchmaker’s Romance with Time is his tenth book and fourth biography.

His short stories and articles have been published locally as well as in the UK and Australia.