When I do shiritori, if I say "clockwise," no one understands me. That's because I've never seen a mechanical clock with the hand moving clockwise on a dial.
However, just as there's a water clock in the church where we're staying as freeloaders, clocks exist in this world.
So what about a mechanical clock with many gears turning round and round and the hand circling the dial?
Medieval European mechanical clocks have survived in modern times, and this northern European world probably already has mechanical clocks too, or they might be under development and complete at any moment.
In medieval Europe, there was a religious reason to pray at fixed times, so the development of clocks was urgent and advanced faster than other technology.
The church rang bells at fixed hours, so medieval people recognized bells and clocks as the same thing.
