Hi, I know it's been a long time, but I want to thank you for the feedback. I implemented this, hoping to make the clock-reading more meaningful. I added this to my recent dev log.
I also have people complaining about: 1. not being able to focus on both the clock and character movement; 2. in later games, the dials are full of items and the game becomes a less skillful bullet heaven + dodging game. So I added a secondary mechanic: time moves only when you move, so the game plays mostly the same; the player just has time to stop and read the clock.
If you are still interested, give it another try :)