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Clock Index - TV Tropes

  • ️Wed Apr 18 2018

Clock Index

This index is for tropes having to do with all sorts of timepieces. Clocks, watches, even sundials or hourglasses. Tropes about clockworks also go here.


Tropes:

  • 24-Hour Trope Clock: Ways that time—whether it be the hour of the day, or its passage—are portrayed in a work.
  • Clock Discrepancy: An event does not happen when someone says it did.
  • Clock of Power: A timepiece that has superpower or grants superpower to its user / inhabitant.
  • Clock Punk: Steampunk with particular emphasis on clock mechanisms.
  • Clock Strikes Thirteen: A clock strikes thirteen, to show magic or weirdness.
  • Clock Tampering: Messing with a clock for your benefit.
  • Clock Tower: A clock tower of particular importance to the plot or setting.
  • Clocks of Control: Strict, order-obsessed characters have a certain clock motif.
  • Clockwork Creature: Mechanical creatures that have their clockwork parts visible, such as cogs or wind-up pins.
  • Clockworks Area: A factory, clocktower, or similar space is filled with large, moving mechanisms that characters use to move.
  • Cuckoo Clock Gag: A cuckoo clock's tendencies are played for comedy.
  • Cue O'Clock: Clock dial numbers are replaced by a non-time-related cue or nonsense.
  • Death's Hourglass: A physical representation showing how much time a character has to live.
  • Doomsday Clock: A clock counting down to nuclear doomsday.
  • Exact Time to Failure: You have exactly this much time to live.
  • Floating Clocks: During a time-travel sequence, floating clocks appear as a visual cue.
  • Race Against the Clock: The heroes have to do something to stop the countdown, or else the consequences will be catastrophic.
  • Right on the Tick: An event happens at an exact time.
  • Ring-Ring-CRUNCH!: Someone attacks their alarm clock to stop it from ringing.
  • Running Out The Clock: Deliberately trying to run down a countdown for whatever reason be it benign or malign.
  • Spinning Clock Hands: Clock hands speed around to show the passage of time.
  • Stock Clock Hand Hang: Holding on for life on the hands of a clocktower clock.
  • Stopped Clock: A broken clock as proof of a disaster or catastrophic event.
  • Tick Tock Terror: The tick-tock of a clock used to make an eerie, tense atmosphere.
  • Tick Tock Tune: Clock sounds used as part of a work's score.
  • Time Bomb: A bomb that explodes after a certain amount of time. Some sort of visual display is typically included to show how much time is left.
  • The Watchmaker: A (likely mysterious) noteworthy character is a watchmaker.
  • Westminster Chimes: The most common type of tune given by clocks. It consists of four sets of four notes, followed by a different note struck the same amount of times as the current hour.
  • When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Characters have until midnight to accomplish their task.