The watch and the pen - literary passions

Among them: Balzac, Victor Hugo, Stendhal, Pushkin, Prosper Mérimée, Alexandre Dumas, and, more recently, Patrick O'Brian, John Fowles and the Japanese Jiro Asada.

Honoré de Balzac  (1799-1850)
“He drew out the most delicious thin watch that Breguet had ever made.
Fancy, it is eleven o'clock, I was up early.”
Eugénie Grandet (1833)

Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
“At times the heart plays tricks and lets us down. The vigilant are right. For God (the mighty Breguet) gave us faith, and seeing it was good, improved it with a watchful eye.”
Chansons des Rues et des Bois (1865)

Stendhal (1783-1842)
“Breguet makes a watch which for twenty years never goes wrong, while the pitiful machine by which we live runs amiss and produces pain at least once a week.”
Rome, Naples and Florence (1817)

Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837)
“A dandy on the boulevards (...), strolling at leisure until his Breguet, ever vigilant, reminds him it is midday.”
Eugene Onegin (1825-1833)

Prosper Mérimée (1803-1870)
“The traveller regrets taking so much money with him. He looks at his Breguet watch — perhaps it's for the last time. He would have been happier if it were hanging safely from his mantelpiece in Paris. ”
Lettre d'Espagne (1830)

Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)
“Danglars' watch, a masterpiece by Breguet which he had rewound with care before
setting out the previous day, chimed half past five in the morning. ”
The Count of Monte Cristo (1845)

Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000)
“They were both indeed Breguet repeating watches, wonderfully accurate, wonderfully resistant ... ”
Blue at the Mizzen (1999)

John Fowles (1926-)
“He takes out his watch, a Breguet, (…) an instrument from the bench of the greatest of watchmakers.”
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969)
               
Jiro Asada
”My watch that you see here is a jewel made by a great craftsman called Breguet. It seems that it was once treasured by King Louis and Queen Marie-Antoinette. It's a real masterpiece, of unequalled precision.”
Tooi Tsutsuoto (2002)