In 1656 the Campanus brothers had built a night clock for Pope Alexander XII. In a total innovation, they replaced the then conventional hands with hour figures on rotating discs, which performed a semicircular arc across the clock face […] The concept is that the moving hour display keeps an almost metaphorical count of the passing minutes rising and setting along the hourly arc.
(From The Watchismo Times. The link takes you to more wandering hour clocks and watches)
writing without rhythm 