The Solid Gold Buddha (1979)

W. H. Canaway's adventure novel follows Bernard Miller, a quiet man back from a year in Hong Kong, whose son Peter contracts rabies from a muzzled bloodhound on a cruise. To pay for the only treatment that might save the boy, Miller sets out to remove a quantity of gold from the solid gold Buddha in a Bangkok temple, with an American sculptor, two Australian adventurers and a touring Indian theatre company as cover. (Open Library)

Watches

Longines watch: Sedated after his collapse in the consulting room where Peter has shown the first sign of rabies, Miller is asked what he does for a living. The doctor takes in the lightweight suit by an Indian tailor in Hong Kong, the crocodile-skin shoes and the gold Longines, and, satisfied that there is a rich look about him, explains that four documented recoveries exist, that the treatment is extremely expensive and that it must be carried out in the United States. The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: He wore crocodile-skin shoes and a gold Longines watch. All in all, then, there was a rich look about Miller, and it was not lost on the doctor. (W. H. Canaway, The Solid Gold Buddha, scan cataloged as Hutchinson, 1979, p. 38; his full name is on the jacket flap and the treatment is priced on the same page; Internet Archive scan OCR)