The Plume of Feathers (1993)

Ted Willis's last novel was published by Macmillan London in 1993. It is set at the Plume of Feathers, an inn in the village of Brockley Green in the years before the Second World War, where Tom Jackson, the romantic, daydreaming porter, inherits a legacy and trades his dreams of fighting the Fascists in Spain for dreams of marrying Lynda Makepeace, the inn's receptionist. (Open Library)

Watches

Ingersoll watch: Counting the hours to his first date with Lynda, Tom cashes a cheque and goes to old Mr Letchworth, the clock repairer who also runs the Gift Centre in Willow Grove. He buys a new Ingersoll wrist-watch and a leather wallet, the first of either he has owned, and a brooch in the shape of the letter L. Mandy Silcock spots the watch at once and teases him across the bar ("An Ingersoll! Posh"), and he finds that owning it makes time pass more slowly (p. 49). He checks it waiting at the station (p. 56) and later (pp. 63, 126, 132). The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: For the combined sum of two pounds, three shillings and sixpence Tom bought a new Ingersoll wrist-watch and a leather wallet, the first time he had ever owned either one of these articles. (Ted Willis, The Plume of Feathers, scan cataloged as Macmillan London, 1993, p. 48; Internet Archive scan OCR)