One Man's Treasure (1992)

Catriona Flynt is the name under which Karen Flynn and Violet Lewis, who hold the copyright, wrote this romance, one of the first books in the HarperMonogram imprint according to the publisher's letter at the front. Set in Flagstaff, Arizona, in the winter of 1897, the year of the advertisements and maps the authors thank the Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce for, it follows Gladius Blade, an artist and the son of the Colorado mining millionaire Seamus Augustus Blade, who has hired on with the arrogant archaeologist Donal Phelan and is drawn to a woman named Ruth. (Open Library)

Watches

Illinois watch: Waiting in the Woodbine Saloon on Railroad Avenue over his second rye whiskey for Donal Phelan, a man best described as a liar and a cheat, Blade takes out his solid-gold Bunn Special pocket watch and assures himself that Phelan is very late. The watch was a gift from his father, who believed the Illinois Watch Company's railroad watch the finest timepiece ever made and therefore a status symbol other men would notice and appreciate. Phelan strides in a page later booming that he has found a veritable treasure. The text names the maker and the Bunn Special railroad grade; it gives no case or movement detail.

Source text: Blade took out his solid-gold Bunn Special pocket watch — a gift from his father who believed the Illinois Watch Company's railroad watch was the finest timepiece ever made and, therefore, a status symbol other men would notice and appreciate — and assured himself Phelan was very late. (Catriona Flynt, One Man's Treasure, scan cataloged as HarperPaperbacks, 1992, p. 29; his full name and his father's are on p. 1; the copyright page gives the 1992 first edition; Internet Archive scan OCR)