Upon Examining Their Watches

There are remarkably few physical objects in Austen's novels. I was shocked when, near the end of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy suddenly, like pulling a rabbit out of a hat, examine their watches. Who knew they had watches? The novel has covered about 18 months at this point, and never before has anyone cared about what time it was. Well, once we hear a clock strike 3. When Elizabeth spends her first day at Netherfield nursing Jane, the clock strikes 3 and she realizes that she has to go home.  There are references to specific times in the novel - always an hour, never an hour and so many minutes - Mr. Collins is to arrive at 4 o'clock, not 4:20.  Darcy includes the time, "8 o'clock in the morning" in his letter to Elizabeth explaining his relationship with Wickham, the Netherfield ladies retire to dress for dinner at 5 o'clock, and Lydia is to be at the church to marry Wickham at 11 o'clock, and not "beyond the hour", either.  So, one clock and two watches, and these seen but one time each in the novel.

I'm sure you recall General Tillney's watch in Northanger Abbey, for he was a tyrant about time. Perhaps to emphasise his military background, but certainly to show him as an early adopter of a modern disease - a mania for regulating life by the clock.