Pocket Watch Head

Can you help me find a science fiction book title?

I read this book in junior high I believe. It started in a small town where machine controlled everyone by having people put metal caps in their heads that controlled their thinking. One boy freaked out when his brother got a cap, so he tried running away with his friend. They went to another town, and thought everything was ok until they found out the machines were their too. I believe they ran into the mountains after that.

All I remember past that is that I think their is a sequel to this book, and that a pocket watch was pretty important to the story. Hope someone can help me.

sounds like The first or the second of Tripods books written by Samuel Youd.

The White Mountains (1967)
The story begins in a small village in England A.D. 2167. Will, the narrator, is 13, not quite a year short of the time when he will be “Capped”. His cousin, Henry, is of a similar age, but one month younger than Will even though he has a bigger and more muscular body. Although neither understands how the Caps work, they know that the Capped appear to worship the Tripods, who rule the Earth, and that they are unquestioning and uncreative. Feeling uncomfortable with the idea of losing their creativity, the two follow the advice of a mysterious vagrant who goes by the name of “Ozymandias” and undertake a long journey to the “White Mountains” (actually the Swiss Alps, literally translated from the French Mont Blanc). After crossing the Channel, they join forces with a young, inventive French boy, Jean-Paul (Henry Anglicizes his name to Beanpole, owing to his tall, thin stature, and he is so referenced for the rest of the series), and head for the Alpine region. The boys go through the remains of Paris, abandoned and ravaged by some ancient war, and finally arrive at the General Quarters of the human resistance, having while en route, and mostly by sheer luck, destroyed a Tripod.

Hog Hunting Texas Pocket Pigs: .223 Head Shot