Invitation to Die (1972)

Ramon Hernandez's novel, published in Spanish as Invitado a morir in 1972 and translated by Marion F. Freeman for the Garland Library of World Literature in Translation, follows Cros Simpson & Simpson, an official of Works and Projects who wakes at seven every morning by his own biology, keeps score of his days in points for and against, and is invited to Central Prison as a Solemn Witness to the execution of the condemned Samuel Sable. (Open Library; Open Library)

Watches

Omega (unidentified model): Simpson's watch keeps what the novel calls Omega Time, Super Datomatic Time: he wakes to it at seven, checks it mechanically at four-thirty on a boiling August afternoon as he waits at a stranger's door, reads seven-thirty on it as he crosses the prison lawn to show his invitation to the sentry, and verifies the passing of time on it hundreds of times while he is shut in a barred room waiting for the execution. Late in the book, on a morning of whiskey throbbing in his temples, he finds the Omega Super Datomatic among the cigarettes and matches, holds it to his ear and discovers that it has stopped. The text gives the name Super Datomatic, which resolves to no known Omega model, so the row sits on the maker's page.

Source text: SIMPSON & SIMPSON has knocked at the door and is waiting. He mechanically checks the time on his Super Datomatic Omega wrist watch. It is four thirty p.m., desperation day. August, Tuesday. (Ramon Hernandez, Invitation to Die, scan cataloged as Garland, 1989, p. 81, OCR line-break hyphen closed up; the watch is on pp. 9, 93, 103, 135 and 141; the copyright page records the translation of Invitado a morir and Open Library dates the Planeta original 1972; Internet Archive scan OCR)