History Main / StoppedClock

* Combined with TragicKeepsake in ''Series/TheLastOfUs'' (both [[VideoGame/TheLastOfUs game]] and TV series). Joel wears a wristwatch that his daughter had repaired on the day of his birthday twenty years ago. The watch no longer works as it was broken by the same burst of gunfire that killed her.

[[folder: Visual Novels]]

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' uses this with a strong justification: in order to generate the power necessary to send the Delorean back to the future, Doc and Marty use the latter's knowledge of the future to get the car to the exact spot needed: the clock tower, which was struck by lightning at a very specific time, which everyone knows of because the clock stopped working at that exact moment.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Played with in "The End". Dean goes to sleep in a hotel room, setting the alarm clock to wake him four hours later. Cut to a smashed clock and Dean waking up in broad daylight in the room which is now a burnt-out wreck, as he's awoken in a BadFuture.

* UsefulNotes/{{VCR}}s included a digital clock, which in many people's homes simply blinked "12:00" because no one could be bothered to figure out how to program it after hooking it up or after a power failure, because the clock wasn't necessary to watch movies - only to program when to record things. This became a common [[StockShticks Stock Shtick]] for someone who was HopelessWithTech.

* A variation in ''Series/{{CSINY}}:'' In the B-case of "[[Recap/CSINYS01E06 Outside Man]]" all the clocks in the victim's apartment are wrong by the same amount of time. Turns out, someone had used a power tool which overloaded the main breaker, causing it to trip and the whole apartment to lose power. The person then left their fingerprint on the breaker when they turned it back on, which of course placed them there at that exact time and broke the case.

* A variation in ''Series/{{CSINY}}:'' In the B case of "A Man a Mile," all the clocks in the victim's apartment are wrong by the same amount of time. Turns out, someone had used a power tool which overloaded the main breaker, causing it to trip and the whole apartment to lose power. The person then left their fingerprint on the breaker when they turned it back on, which of course placed them there at that exact time and broke the case.

[[folder:Film]]

* The ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series use this idea many times - twice in [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney the first game]] alone.

* Near the end of the final ''{{Series/Bones}}'', Brennan has a box of items recovered from the exploded lab building. One item is a clock that stopped when the bombs went off. She says she wants to hang it up when the repairs are done at the lab. When Booth asks why, she says it’s a reminder that things could have stopped for them, as they could have died, but they didn’t, and the clock is a reminder.

* During the ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' Intermission, Spades Slick [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/1292 uses his knowledge of when a clock will break in the future]], in combination with TimeTravel to get the drop on several members of the villainous Felt. Diamonds Droog also [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/1228 uses this]] [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/1229 and a missing tooth of a Felt member]] to deduce when to get the drop on him in the past.

* In ''Film/PansLabyrinth'', at one point it is implied that Captain Vidal's pocketwatch originally belonged to his father, which the latter broke at the time of his death so it would freeze at that time in order to show his son "How a brave man dies" and later Vidal had it repaired out of spite. [[spoiler:As Vidal is about to be killed by the rebels he takes out his watch presumably to break it again and asks that his son be told the time of his death only for Mercedes to cut him off to say "He won't even know [his] name" followed by her brother shooting him.]]
* ''Film/TheWarOfTheWorlds1953'': After the Martians use their heat ray for the first time, all the watches of the people in the nearest time stop. When this happens, the people notice that all of the watches stopped at the same time.

* In ''Film/TheConjuring'', one of the first signs that something is wrong is that the clocks keep stopping at 3:07.
* ''Film/TheQuietEarth'': When John Hobson wakes up he finds that his watch has stopped at 6:12. As he explores the deserted world, he finds that all watches and clocks have also stopped at 6:12.
* In ''Film/{{Triangle}}'', the clocks on board the GhostShip are stuck at 8:17 a.m. signifying the time of the car accident that set everything in motion. Same goes for the heroine's wrist watch.
* Throughout ''Film/TheMachinist'' the hero will notice when it is 1:30. At the airport the "local" clock is frozen at 1:30 and flickers back and forth between seconds. [[spoiler:The reason is revealed in a {{flashback}} sequence towards the end when we see that the fateful hit and run happens at 1:30 pm. The frozen clock time is a symbol for the hero being stuck in the past since this traumatic event.]]
* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' uses this with a strong justification: in order to generate the power necessary to send the Delorean back to the future, Doc and Marty use the latter's knowledge of the future to get the car to the exact spot needed: the clock tower, which was struck by lightning at a very specific time, which everyone knows of because the clock stopped working at that exact moment.

* In ''Film/PicnicAtHangingRock'', the teacher's and coach driver's pocket watches stop shortly before Miranda and the other students disappear.
* In ''Film/SherlockHolmes'', Watson reminds Holmes that he forgot to determine the midget's time of death by checking the broken pocket watch.

* A stopped watch used to be a common method of discerning time of death when the cause of death was a fall from a great height. This was abused in at least one episode of ''Series/MidsomerMurders'' to make a murder look like a suicide.
* As with ''Series/MidsomerMurders'', this was also used in ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' where a broken clock in a struggle indicates when the murder took place. [[spoiler:The struggle was actually manufactured, and the clock set forward several hours before being smashed in order to give the murderer an alibi.]]

* At the end of the multi-part episode of ''Series/LoisAndClark'' that involved Clark being lost in time, the exact time of his departure is needed to save him. Good thing said departure involved an explosion that damaged the BigBad's watch.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Where is Everybody?" depicts a man wandering in an empty town. In one building, he finds a broken clock. The implication is that the clock must have stopped at whatever time disaster struck, scattering the inhabitants.[[spoiler: We later learn that he broke the clock himself in his attempt to escape a space simulation chamber.]]

* On ''Series/ThirtyRock'', Jack accidentally hits his elderly mother with his car and sits there in the driveway for a full eight minutes before calling 911. She chews him out at the end of the episode after noticing the discrepancy between the time on her watch, which broke when she fell, and the time of his cell-phone call. "Numbers, ''unlike children'', don't lie!"

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' has used a broken watch to establish time of death more than once.
-->'''Lanie:''' He was killed at 11:15.
-->'''Castle:''' So specific. I'm impressed.
-->'''Lanie:''' His watch broke when he fell.
-->'''Castle:''' Ah, you shouldn't have told me. Less impressed.
* In ''Series/AllMyChildren'''s "Who Killed Will", storyline, a suspect is on trial and one of the most compelling pieces of evidence is a broken clock, showing a time that eradicates his alibi. However, after another suspect testifies and admits that he tampered with the clock to give ''himself'' an alibi, the first suspect is now cleared. Ironically, despite the second suspect's own deceit, he's innocent too.

* Near the end of the final ''{{Series/Bones}}'', Brennan has a box of items recovered from the exploded lab building. One item is a clock that stopped when the bombs went off. She says she wants to hang it up when the repairs are done at the lab. When Booth asks why, she says it’s a reminder that things could have stopped for them, as they could have died, but they didn’t, and the clock is a reminder.

* In ''VideoGame/FEAR2ProjectOrigin'', all clocks after the hospital level have stopped due to the [[NukeEm events]] of the first game.
* ''VideoGame/Condemned2Bloodshot'' from the same developers as ''VideoGame/{{FEAR}}'' has one instance of this as well: the first bit of investigation the player does at Black Lake Lodge is looking at the watched on the wrist of a severed arm to determine when it was removed.
* In ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' all the clocks have stopped (permanently) at 12:00, odd, considering they are powered L.E.D clocks that would normally keep going, or at least flash.
* In ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', and ''VideoGame/Fallout76'', every single clock you see stopped at the exact time the Chinese attack occurred. Seems like some of them would have been wound-up or something...

* In ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming'', all the clocks in town are stopped at 2:06. [[spoiler:2:06 AM being the time of Josh's death. In a more meta-sense, 206 is the number of Alex's room in the BedlamHouse ending.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheVanishingOfEthanCarter'', all of the clocks in the town are stuck at 7:00, [[spoiler:which is what time it is on Ethan's digital clock when the house starts burning and Ethan starts imagining Paul Prospero's story]]. In the post-game, the clocks move to 7:04, [[spoiler:the same time that Ethan wakes up from his DyingDream]]. The one at the train stop is set at 7:05, [[spoiler:the same time that Ethan dies]].

* In ''VideoGame/BarrowHill'', all the clocks and watches you find have stopped advancing, and some of the analog clocks' minute hands can be seen jiggling in place, as if forcibly held on the brink of moving. Emma the DJ discovers that ''hers'' has stopped during a live broadcast you pick up via radio, and she invites callers to phone in and tell her the right time.
* ''VideoGame/BioShock1'': New Year's Eve coincided with a series of bombings in the heart of town, with the Kashmir Restaurant being hit hardest. Atlas led a large segment of lower-class citizens in a series of attacks on Rapture's upper-crust establishments. The riots basically never stopped; the party decorations are still up, and many Splicers are wearing their costumes from the ball.
* In ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles: Madame Fate'', there is a clock behind the fortune teller throughout the game, a grim reminder that there is little time until Madame Fate's death, which is scheduled WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve. [[spoiler:After Madame Fate's death at exactly twelve o'clock, the clock stops running.]]
* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', after [[spoiler:Kiyotaka]]'s murder, the victim is found with his watch broken at the time the murder occurred.

* ''WebVideo/FiveSecondFilms'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e-sCFZlM1s Come on down to Broken Clocks...]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TwelveOunceMouse'': The clock is a living wall clock that can slide around on and teleport, but its hands are stopped, stuck on the time 2:22.

* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': Subverted in the episode "The Day the World Didn't Move Around Very Much". A jet cutting a power line stops Johnny's clock at 12:00, and after seeing similar events, he's convinced that time has stopped for everyone but him when in fact he runs into various instances of things intentionally standing still for other reasons.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': In "Headhunters", when Dipper interrogates [[TestosteronePoisoning Manly Dan]] about the "murder" of Grunkle Stan's wax replica, Manly Dan's alibi is that he was punching the clock at the time... in this case, [[LiteralMetaphor an actual street clock]] that's stopped at the time of the crime.
* Attempted by Bloo in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends''. He's annoyed a giant friend known only as "The New Guy" by asking him "How's the weather up there?", and said friend threatened to "give him something to laugh about" at 4 in the afternoon. Bloo, [[BookDumb not understanding how time works]], attempts to prevent this by breaking every clock in the house. Madame Foster counters by having Coco bring in a large countdown clock. Naturally, Bloo tries to smash it, only to bounce off.
-->'''Madame Foster:''' That's plexiglass, dear boy. There's no breaking that!
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' story "Time Waits For No Mandy" (from Cartoon Network Block Party #56, DC Comics) has Mandy, who hates celebrating her birthday, tricking Father Time into going on vacation. It causes a loop in time to the point where it becomes monotonous. Grim, Billy and Mandy try to find a way to get Father Time back on the job.

Stopped clocks are, surprisingly, [[RightForTheWrongReasons often correct]]. Twice a day, in fact. For a related trope, see DumbassHasAPoint.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' episode "Where is Everybody?" depicts a man wandering in an empty town. In one building, he finds a broken clock. The implication is that the clock must have stopped at whatever time disaster struck, scattering the inhabitants.[[spoiler: We later learn that he broke the clock himself in his attempt to escape a space simulation chamber.]]

* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' has every single clock you see stopped at the exact time the Chinese attack occurred. Seems like some of them would have been wound-up or something...

* Music/KeroKeroBonito's "The Princess and the Clock" tells the story of a princess trapped in a tower with a stopped clock hanging above her, a metaphor for her never being allowed to grow up.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}},'' Spades Slick [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/1292 uses his knowledge of when a clock will break in the future]], in combination with TimeTravel to get the drop on several members of the villainous Felt.

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[[caption-width-right:350:A timeless motif.]]

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