Horological Meandering

tee530
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Practically a main character...

...in "All Tomorrow's Parties", by scifi author William Gibson:

                Fontaine picks up the watch, affords himself a quick squint through the loupe.  Whistles in spite of himself.  “Jaeger-LeCoultre.”  He unsquints, checking; the boy hasn’t moved.  Squints again, this time at the ordnance markings on the caseback.  “Royal Australian Air Force, 1953,” he translates.  “Where’d you steal this?”

                Nothing.

                “This is near mint.” Fontaine feels, all at once, profoundly and unexpectedly lost.  “This a redial?”

                Nothing.

                Fontaine squints through the loupe.  “All original?”

                Fontaine wants this watch.

                He puts it down on the green pad, atop the worn symbol of a golden crown, noting that the black calf band is custom-made, handsewn around bars permanently fixed between the lugs.  This work itself, which he takes to be either Italian or Austrian, may have cost more than some of the watches in his tray.  The boy immediately picks it up.

                Fontaine produces the tray.  “Look here.  You want to trade?  Gruen ‘Curvex’ here.  Tudor ‘London,’ 1948; nice original dial.  Vulcain Cricket here, gold head, very clean.”

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