No Stupid Questions

I grew up with analog clocks and can read them at a glance.

For the most part, I don't really care precisely about minute. E.g. the analog clock in my kitchen is only used to tell me that it's "roughly 2 minutes past 5 soon" and it's enough for me to put the potatoes on.

If I need to know precisely whether it's 16:03 vs 16:04, I use a digital clock. Though mostly because my analog clocks are not precisely synced at all times.

Back when analog was the norm, nobody cared about a minute here or there unless they had some specific profession. Like, the bus came "15:15 ish maybe 5 minutes early maybe 10 minutes late". Everyone's clock were off by at least 2 minutes anyway.

Today in the digital age, the bus schedule says "15:17"

If I need that level of precision, I'll use a digital clock or set an alarm.

I can usually tell the time, at a glance, within 1-2 minutes which is precise enough for 99.999% of cases. Most IRL scheduling has a lower bound of 5-minute increments, so looking at an analog clock for the exact minute isn't really necessary. e.g. 7:21 and 7:23 are effectively the same for all but the rarest of my purposes.

I think of analog time as kinda a pie chart telling me how much of the minute and hour that's elapsed. So I don't see 13:45, I see 75% past one o'clock.

Does that make sense?

If I'm bored, sure. Otherwise it's to the nearest 5 minutes

You might look into getting a slow watch.
It doesn't really matter exactly what minute it is mostly.

Imo for most applications that I'd be using an analog clock for a time difference of even up to 5-10 minutes is irrelevant. If I really needed up to the minute accuracy I'm using a digital clock with the seconds counting down

I usually round to 5 minutes. If I for whatever reason need the exact minute it will take a couple of second to see, depending on the design of the clock.

It takes time to get used to it, no pun intended. Everything is easier with practice.

Those of us who grew up with analog clocks can read them at a glance. If you are new to them, it'll probably take you a few months (or more) of daily use before you can tell time at a glance.

Growing up with only Analog, it just was a quick glance. You didn't even have to stop and read it, because you glance and have a mental image of the hand positions that you could compare in your head.

Does your watch have clearly marked minutes and a second hand? If its not quite at the minute mark you know its before 9:23, but if its so close you can't tell then the seconds hand will show you if its before or after the 60seconds spot.

But also, that's how Analog is, and unless you have a very precise watch, a regular watch will gain or lose time daily and so the preciseness of 9:23 will be invalid anyway.

The concept of numbers doesn't come up. The way the hands are conveys the fraction of the hour or half day that has passed. There's never a need to know the exact number, time is continuous and not discrete. The minute hand will move fractional minutes, too.

I don't generally read them to the minute very often. For the most part, 5 min increments are close enough for what I need, most of the time. If I do need a more precise time, I'm usually already closely watching the clock and it's just addition (was 1341 when I started this, now it's 1345.).

If I need to get the precise time, cold, than it's as simple as: closest 5 min tick, then add or subtract minute ticks till you get to the minute hand

Eventually you get to the point where it's not something you consciously think about. You just look at the clock and then pattern recognition takes over and you just know what time it is.

Eventually you learn to recognise the hand positions almost like they're symbols in their own right. You can tell the difference between an apostrophe and a comma, right? And in certain typefaces they're identical symbols other than their position.

For the same reason, you can tell the difference between an hour hand just past the 12 and an hour hand just past the 6. Then you learn what the other positions look like.

Then you can read the minute hand to whatever precision you need.

After that it's just practise, practise, practise. Your read times will tumble and before long you'll be completely used to it and be just as fast as with digital.

There are usually ticks for every five minutes, most clocks have ticks for each minute. It won’t officially become the next minute until the second hand hits 12.

If you get used to looking at analog clock with minute ticks, you start to get a sense of spacing. If you subdivide the interval of a clock with only five minute ticks, you know what time it is.

I ... look at them. There is no actual thinking that occurs. If it is 9:22 then it is 9:22. If it is 9:23 then it is 9:23. I understand your question, but if the trailing side of the minute hand is not yet even with or past the plane of the upcoming minute, then it remains the previous minute.

GenX here. I wanted to reassure you that it didn’t come naturally to me and i grew up when this was still taught in school. The real answer is practice. Read a clock several times a day for a few weeks. Take a moment to think about the mintue hand. Is it about 2/5 of the way to the next digit? 3/5? After a while, you won’t have to think. You will just recognize.

I used to read analog clocks to the nearest five minutes. It’s just a quick glance and you (used to) rarely need to be that exact.

However my kids never got used to analog clocks despite an annoying number scattered throughout our house. It takes them too long to process what I mean by “quarter of”. They’re in college this year so it’s time to surrender in that battle. Now I’m the one who spends too much time reading analog clocks, trying to read them to nearest minute.

With digital clocks everywhere, gps exact trip times, scheduled meetings, society has gotten much more exact with time anyway. Being within five minutes is no longer good enough

Fun fact - I was 23 and studying for my MSc before I learned how to read analogue clocks.

If you're after speed, all I can suggest is that you've got to embrace the old-people habit of using the nearest 5 minute mark and accept that level of accuracy.

• "Quarter past"
• "It's just gone quarter-past"
• "It's nearly twenty-past"
• "Twenty past"

I wear an analog with a blank face so I just round to the latest 5 minute increment. But if I need the exact time I just check my phone or another clock/watch with a numbered face

You'll just get used to it over time. Think of it as spatial rather than numeric.

It's actually easier on the brain in my opinion.

Step one: where is hour hand? Is it on a number or after? Is it approaching a new number? This is already enough to estimate.

Step two: where is minute hand? Is it on a number, or after? Is it approaching a new number? Dead center?

This is enough to get precise time within about 90s.

If the hour hand is a little past 5, I know the minute hand is between 12 and 4. Oh, it's between the 2 and 3. Closer to the 2 but definitely past it.

It's 5:12. Maybe 5:13. Maybe 5:11. Probably 5:12.

Its six -- five = (approx) 06:25:00 (notice minute hand is pointing at 5)

its seven -- eight'n'half = (approx) 08:42:05 (minute hand pointing between 8 and 9)

I just do quick maths, I have multiplication table memorized from all the way to 9, since first grade.

They literally make a "poem" on multiplication table in mainland China where I was from (all the way to 9x9, but multiples of 10 is obvious so they ommitted it, afiak).

So my thought process is:
一五的五 (1, 5 = 5)
二五一十 (2, 5, 10)
三五十五 (3, 5, 15)
四五二十 (4, 5, 20)
五五二十五 (5, 5, 25)
五六三十 (5, 6, 30)
五七三十五 (5, 7, 35)
五八四十 (5, 8, 40)
五九四十五 (5, 9, 45)
(this is the point where my thoughts switch away from mandarin and just thinking pure numbers)
5 x 10 = 50
5 x 11 = 55
5 x 12 = wait... no need, its just 0 mins again

So yea just remember how to recall the "poem" out of thin air and summon the numbers, takes about like 1-2 seconds, mandarin being 1 sylable per charater make it easier to remember (七七四十九 -- 5 sylables vs "Seven times seven is fourty nine" -- 9 sylables). Sorry I don't know how everyone else do multiplication tables, my brain works differently, but funny thing is, 11x11 to 14x14 really messed with my brain since it only goes to 9x9

(Yes I typed all that just to show off how they literally crammed a weird entire multiplication "poem" in my head that's still stuck in my head to this day when I'm no longer in the country lolz. Sorry for the boring wall of text xD)

Edit: typos

I guess I’m at that age where stuff like this means I’m old 😂

I’ll answer your question though: just buy a watch that the minutes are clearly marked with ticks and the minute hand moves by the minute and isn’t in constant motion.

Here’s some friendly advice though. Before digital, there really wasn’t a way to be so accurate down to the minute. Remember there wasn’t even really a way to get the right time. You just got it from somewhere else and hoped that time was accurate. Most people set their watches to the places that we’re important to them, ie work. So that they they were on time to whatever it was that they needed to get to.

With that said, anyone that needed pinpoint accuracy had other means of getting the time or they used very expensive chronometers that kept time extremely well. In other words normal people just did stuff a couple minutes early in case their watches were slow.

ALL OF THAT to say if you want accuracy down to the minute, just use digital.

Get a good clock - the ten minute intervals will be clearly marked as well as five with lil' submarkers. You can train your pattern recognition that way

Source: am old

Memorize visually how far into a new minute marker the hand is when a new minute ticks over. So the moment it switches from 9:22 to 9:23, is the hand directly over the line, or maybe aligned on the left edge? Then use that as a mental model for future comparisons

I would call that down to the seconds accuracy. Minute accuracy is like plus or minus 59 seconds. I mean if something is not using ntp or such it can be off by a minute easily enough.

My primary wall clock has a second hand and clearly defined minute tick marks, and syncs nightly to public timekeeping signals (the so-called “atomic” clock). This satisfies my precision needs.

If your watch doesn’t have a second hand you may want one that does. If you see the minute hand at 9:23 but the second hand it at 45 seconds, then you know it is 9:22:45. It does take an extra glance, but only when you need that exact time.

However, that also depends on being synced to “real” time for it to matter. Therefore most analog watches will always be a little off. Over time (no pun intended) you would learn what the “drift” of the watch is.

To ensure you are on time and you only had an analog watch, you would just be early to ensure you are not late.

Hell nah. I just look at the hour hand and how far away the minute hand is away from the 6. Before the 6, Hour O'clock. After the 6, Hour 30.

It depends, but in most cases I can't determine the exact minute on an analog clock. In practice, the quickest way is to choose the worse case.