Eugene Onegin (1833)

Eugene Onegin

Alexander Pushkin's verse novel follows Eugene Onegin's social life, his friendship with Lensky and his relationship with Tatyana. The opening chapter places his Breguet within the routine of a fashionable young man in St. Petersburg. (Project Gutenberg, Chapter One)

Watches

Breguet pocket watch

The dandy's Breguet chimes to announce dinner time during his day of leisure. Onegin has been strolling along the boulevard before the chime sends him toward dinner. The watch divides a day of social leisure rather than marking an appointment at noon. The translation's note explains that the watchmaker's name was used as a term for a watch; the passage does not supply a numbered Breguet reference. (Project Gutenberg source text)

Source text: "Until the sleepless Bréguet chime / Announcing to him dinner-time." (Project Gutenberg ebook 23997, Chapter One, stanza XII)