Watches in the literature...
Dear All: was watches represent not only tools for everyday life (still, at least), but also proxies for attitudes, wealth, style, moods or practicalities. Thus, it does not surprise at all if watches every now and then are discovered in literature as tin...
I can't think of any specific book, but...
...I recently took my brother to help him pick out a watch and he was insistent that it had to be a Breitling because he remembered the name from a book he read years ago when he was in high school. It was a novel about a World War 2 pilot and of course t...
Magnus, isn't this just an example...
...of cynical 'product placement'? Something for which the brands have paid, in cash or kind? We are now very used to seeing it in movies, but it crept into novels in a big way some years ago. Cigarette brands, cars, watches, clothes, hotel chains, holida...
NO (long explanation inside)
or maybe more strictly.......probably no; in the case of the Scarpetta series of novels, it seems unlikely that any 'cynical product placement' occured. Probably the mention of Breguet timepieces in books by various authors is not 'cynical product placeme...
It mightn't be...
..purely cynical product placement, but it does smack of faux 'sophistication' and lazy writing - a way of conveying a certain degree of connoisseurship without having to establish any in the character itself. It also ages novels, or at minimum securely l...
As you might expect...
...Patrick Bateman wore the Rolex Datejust on Jubilee. Cheers, pplater.
One of those...
...notable instances where the film is far more enjoyable than the book. I'm still convinced that if the Classification Board hadn't sealed that book in plastic, it would have sold about 8 copies.
At first I thought it was a Swatch Group package deal
because of Blancpain and Breguet, but if she is also mentioning Breitling and Rolex I think there's a good chance that watch descriptions are not transactional.
The watch descriptions may not be transactional, but...
... the writing is as turgid as it comes: "Maybe you're familiar with illumination technology? Gaseous tritium, a radioactive isotope that decays and causes the numbers and other markings on the watch to glow so they're easy to read in the dark?..." I mea...
If it was another famous (female) American author...
I would think the same, but in this case - honestly, I don't know. Cheers, Magnus
Pulp Fiction is most memorable for me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kngBtoylIVM dont know what make is it...please enlighten if you know. Best, Horo
Unless we've gone all...
Derridian (is that a word?) and post-modernist, in which case we might consider Pulp Fiction just another text, I think MB's original post was talking books. As for the ass watch...from what I've read/seen from screen grabs it was a Lancet.
If not for some dark brown like
substance on the dial, I could have made out the brand.... I've made so much reference to pul fiction of late, I'm gonna pull out the DVD tonight
Dark Voyage by Alan Furst.
At one point the protagonist, a ship's captain, is described simply as wearing a "good" watch. Based on the period (World War II) and on his character, I don't have the slightest doubt what brand he was wearing (IWC).
From the realm of autobiography . . .
. . . I would add Albert Speer's mention of avidly perusing JLC catalogs towards the end of his incarceration in "Spandau: The Secret Diaries".
A Couple of Examples
spring to mind. Jay Lake wrote an alternative-earth trilogy where horology is not only mentioned but a vital plot device: "Mainspring", "Esapement" and "Pinion". In "The Grand Complication" by Allen Kurzweil, Breguet's long-lost Marie Antoinette watch is ...
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...
My Chance To Influence A Novel
Magnus; An interesting post. I had my fling at trying to influence a watch vignette in the novel of an extremely famous author who was a client. I had been asked to review the galleys concerning a legal issue that had arisen. Having nothing to do with the...