Finding Happiness (2003)

Emma Blair's novel was first published in Great Britain in 2003. In Glasgow in 1924, Sandy McLean trains to be what his father, Dr Mathew McLean, always wanted to become, a surgeon, while his real passion is painting; his mother, Harriet, has growing concerns about her marriage when her sister Margaret, called Cakey, arrives rich from Canada with presents for everyone. (Open Library)

Watches

Bulova (unidentified model): Unwrapping Cakey's presents, Mathew dreads that his will not match the others; it is a gold Bulova wristwatch on a strap of finest brown leather with a gold buckle, and he takes off the old, battered watch he has worn for years to put it on. In his surgery he later stares at it, wondering what it cost: Bulova is an American make not sold in Britain, so he can only speculate, and the gift feeds his resentment of his sister-in-law's money (p. 119). The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: Mathew needn't have feared. His was a gold Bulova wrist watch, the cost of which he didn't even dare contemplate. (Emma Blair, Finding Happiness, scan cataloged as Charnwood (Ulverscroft), 2003, large print; first published in Great Britain in 2003, p. 102; Internet Archive scan OCR)