Rolling All the Time (1976)

James Ballard's collection of seven stories was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1976, in its series of short fiction; "Wild Honey" first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in January 1966. In "The Feast of Crispian", Arnold Chancellor, too young to be served in a bar, ships out on a wartime convoy to Murmansk under the bosun Kiwi Luks. (Open Library)

Watches

Omega (unidentified model): In "The Feast of Crispian", Arnold, his cracked forearm just out of its cast, lifts his arm to read the Omega: three-eighteen in the morning, snowing for hours (p. 75). Ashore after the convoy, he visits Kiwi's Denise in her apartment and shows her the watch: Kiwi took it off during one of the times he was clear in his head and told him to keep it, saying "And then when you get home" without finishing. Denise remembers it as Kiwi's. The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: “He gave me this watch, Denise.” He showed her the Omega. Kiwi had taken it off, during one of the times he was clear in his head, and told him to keep it. (James Ballard, Rolling All the Time, scan cataloged as University of Illinois Press, 1976, p. 89, in "The Feast of Crispian", which begins on p. 40; Internet Archive scan OCR)