Imperial 109 (1977)

Richard Doyle's 1977 novel follows the Imperial Airways flying boat Caterina on a prewar passage from Durban to New York with a dozen passengers, a cargo of gold and Captain Desmond O'Neill in command. During the Cairo stop O'Neill wins a motor race with a passenger, Laura Hartman, beside him, and Georgina Curtis, the wife of Laura's employer, brings a prize of her own to his hotel room. (Open Library)

Watches

Cartier (unidentified model): Georgina's prize is a gold Cartier on a crocodile strap. Desmond refuses it as far too much; she tells him Laura has been her husband's mistress for three years, leaves the box by the bed and says "Wear the watch". Out of exasperation he does, and at the next briefing First Officer Frazer asks to look at it. Later Laura reports that Stewart Curtis says his wife noticed the captain wearing the watch and then found the one she had bought from Cartier missing, and Desmond confronts Curtis over the allegation. The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: Undoing the wrapping, Desmond took off the lid and removed the layer of tissue paper inside. Georgina's prize was a gold Cartier watch on a crocodile strap. (Richard Doyle, Imperial 109, scan cataloged as Bantam Books, 1978, p. 194; OCR line-break hyphen closed up; Frazer notices the watch on p. 206 and the accusation is on pp. 288 and 329; the crew list is at the front of the book; Internet Archive scan OCR)