Watches in literature

I'll start with the one everyone knows 

Another Rolex? Probably. They were on the heavy side but they worked. And at least you could see the time in the dark with those big phosphorus numerals.

Bond wears a Rolex.

I'll just drop this here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6hxmbvicfo

Also, Somewhere in Time.

I collect watches that has relations to movies. One movie that uses watches as a significant part that comes to mind is Interstellar directed by Christopher Nolan. He used two Hamilton watches, a khaki field called “Murph” and a khaki aviation pilot called “Cooper”. The watches in this movies plays an integral part to the story. 

This is the one I own, the Cooper. Still savings to get my hands on the Murph.

The baddie with a Breguet:

Danglars’ watch, one of Breguet’s repeaters, which he had carefully wound up on the previous night, struck half past five.

In Count of Monte Christo

The equally awful Inception focused on watches a bunch too. DiCaprio was contract-bound to wear Tag-Heur, of course. I despise the movie and, like Interstellar, fell asleep constantly due to plodding soundtrack, nonsense plot, intolerable length, and other deficiencies, so I can't elaborate more.

Patrick Bateman wears a Datejust but I think Rolex wouldn't consider him brand ambassador material 

Don’t touch the Rolex.

In American Psycho

Clive Cussler books feature DOXA dive watches. 

Just remembered two poems by Christian Morgenstern. They're in German though:

https://www.textlog.de/morgenstern/gedichte/die-korfsche-uhr

https://www.textlog.de/morgenstern/gedichte/palmstroems-uhr

As most know, they made him say "Don't touch the watch" in the movie.

Can I add this episode too?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li52oi7deR0

well we agree to disagree I guess, since I like both of that movies 😜 

The White Mountains by John Christopher.  The type of watch is unspecified, but the main character is amazed when it starts running on its own without having been wound up.  He notes the word "automatic" on the dial.

Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart. 

An alarm clock, but close - Tik Tock the crocodile in Peter Pan. 🐊

Now that looks interesting! Thank you so much!

One of my favorite movies. I had such a crush on Jane Seymour. She’s also a Bond girl.

Well, Ian Fleming’s estate counts it, so there is that…

One of the first rabbit holes I went down when I got access to "the net" was looking to see if that watch was available.  Fortunately Rick M. had just brought back the Sub 300 that year.

They also greenlight Heineken sponsorship. Don't know about that.

Let's not argue which watch a fictional character is wearing. Writing in the "Watches in literature" post of a watch forum already is enough of a social suicide 😉 So to find a middle ground, would you accept the phrasing "Ian Fleming's Bond wears a Rolex"?

Ok.  That works.

Interstellar of course :) “ The Hamilton “Murph“ then all the Bond films :)

If you haven't seen Doctor Strange, the watch he wears in the movie plays a pretty significant role, not for the whole Avengers, saving the world thing, but from a personal perspective for Doctor Strange. Check it out!

The Simpsons parodied A Kind of Stopwatch in Treehouse of Horror one year.

Dr Manhattan's father is a watchmaker, and part of his backstop is him learning watch assembly. It is also a forgotten wrist watch that leads to him becoming Dr. Manhattan.

Opening scene in the Thomas Crown Affair (1999) remake has a great shot of his Reverso (although since Brosnan was an Omega spokesperson, they had to blur out the JLC part)

"Aloha y'all "? 

You must be from Southern Hawaii!

Alice in Wonderland

Though it was a hare off…

Zodiac (2007) Between 1968 and 1983, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree. They show a zodiac super sea wolf and some advertisements a few times. 

I don’t understand how people still speculate about the Zodiac’s “mysterious” and “enigmatic” name and emblem. They even gloss over the fact that there’s a watch with literally the same name and logo but refuse to make the connection. He wasn’t some esoteric genius. He got his name and emblem from his effing watch. That’s as obvious as the nose on your face once someone looks one time at a Zodiac. 
 

People are not smart sometimes.

“This is a Rochefoucauld, the thinnest water-resistant watch in the world. Singularly unique, sculptured in design, hand-crafted in Switzerland, and water resistant to three atmospheres. This is the sports watch of the 1980s. Six thousand, nine hundred and fifty-five dollars retail! It tells time simultaneously in Monte Carlo, Beverly Hills, London, Paris, Rome, and Gstaad!"

Well, after a day of nothing new, I guess that's all we could find for now ...?  Hope future readers find even more and post it here! Thank you all so much for your input!

Out of all those, I believe the one by Tarantino is the one that is the most iconic - the story of a simple watch, that has been through, ahem, a lot, until it itself becomes the cause of mayhem. Oodles more fun interpretations in this one 🥳

Although, tbh, I'd have thunk there'd be far more stories - I mean a watch (or clock) is such a splendid object to include in a story, as a metaphor, symbol, allegory, what have you, especially with scifi / time travel / multiverse stories, innit. 

(Speaking of which, I remember one more: the 2019 Netflix series "Dark", it's a quite spiffing time-travel affair, and a watchmaker is a central figure - no watches of note there, though.)

Thanks so much again and uphold the crunch!