We're Not Here (1988)

Tim Mahoney's novel of the war in Vietnam was published by Dell under its Delta imprint in 1988. Sergeant Bill Lemmen walks a perimeter where some of the towers are staffed by dummies, knows Sergeant Nuong of the South Vietnamese army, and loves Hoa, who has heard from Nuong about the big cars and tall buildings of California. (Open Library)

Watches

Seiko (unidentified model): Drinking alone in a casino bar where the GIs are now fewer and older, Lemmen is tapped on the back by Nuong, dressed as a civilian in baggy pants and a shiny beige shirt, with a gold Seiko too big for his wrist worn up on the thick of his forearm. He has come to talk seriously: he is thinking of crossing the line, and asks whether Lemmen plans to escape (pp. 153 to 154). Elsewhere Seikos are goods, not worn: one lies in a Buddha's begging bowl (p. 8), and they fill the Pacex catalogue (p. 63) and the peddlers' alleys (p. 105). The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: He was dressed in civilian clothes: baggy pants and a shiny beige shirt, a brown stripe on the pocket; he wore a gold Seiko watch, too big for his wrist, on the thick of his forearm. (Tim Mahoney, We're Not Here, scan cataloged as Dell, 1988, p. 153; Internet Archive scan OCR)