The Conference of the Birds (2005)

Jeffrey Lewis's 2005 novel, the second of his Meritocracy Quartet, follows a group of young New Yorkers in the 1970s who gather around a charismatic teacher, Joe, and begin to imitate him in everything. The narrator reads the imitation first in their watches. (Open Library)

Watches

Casio (unidentified model): The narrator notices that Bobby wears the same digital Casio as Joe, an eighty- or ninety-dollar watch from a Division Street store with a stainless steel band like a high-school ID bracelet; on Joe it fits, on Bobby's narrow wrist it looks imposed, like a mark of possession. Philip has one too. The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: A Casio that sold at Bondy's on Division Street for eighty or ninety dollars, with a stainless steel band that reminded me of a high school ID bracelet and digital readouts (Jeffrey Lewis, The Conference of the Birds, scan cataloged as Other Press, 2005, p. 15; Internet Archive scan OCR)

Seiko (unidentified model): The narrator admits that he too imitated Joe: he had a Seiko that he wore for a while and then put away in a drawer. The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: I had a Seiko that I wore for awhile then put away in my drawer. (Jeffrey Lewis, The Conference of the Birds, scan cataloged as Other Press, 2005, p. 15; Internet Archive scan OCR)