The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

Oscar Wilde's Gothic novel follows Dorian Gray, whose portrait ages and decays while he remains outwardly youthful. (Open Library)

Watches

Waterbury keyless watch: Lord Henry jokes that Basil "always wore a Waterbury watch", using the inexpensive American watch as a social tell. The remark comes during Dorian and Lord Henry's conversation about whether Basil was murdered. Henry combines the watch with Basil's popularity as reasons to dismiss the possibility, then separates his artistic talent from his supposed dullness. The Waterbury belongs to Henry's characterization of Basil; this passage does not describe its winding mechanism. (Project Gutenberg source text)

Source text: Lord Henry yawned. "Basil was very popular, and always wore a Waterbury watch." (Project Gutenberg ebook 174, Chapter XIX)