Horological Meandering

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 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... 

...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... 

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...  

..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... 

...Patrick Bateman wore the Rolex Datejust on Jubilee. Cheers, pplater.

...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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm4zUH-Xv_o Cheers, pplater.

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 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... 

I would think the same, but in this case - honestly, I don't know. Cheers, Magnus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kngBtoylIVM dont know what make is it...please enlighten if you know. Best, Horo

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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.

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

This Blancpain is a very fine watch. Thanks for the pictures! Fx

Regards, Richard....  

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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).

. . . I would add Albert Speer's mention of avidly perusing JLC catalogs towards the end of his incarceration in "Spandau: The Secret Diaries".

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 ... 

...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... 

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... 

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