Wiktionary
n. The surface of a clock that contains the dial and hands.
WordNet
n. the face of a clock showing hours and minutes of the day [syn: clock dial]
Wikipedia
A clock face or dial is the part of an analog clock (or watch) that displays the time through the use of a fixed-numbered dial or dials and moving hands. In its most basic form, recognized throughout the world, the periphery of the dial is numbered 1 through 12 indicating the hours in a 12-hour cycle, and a short hour hand makes two revolutions in a day. A longer minute hand makes one revolution every hour. The face may also include a second hand which makes one revolution per minute. The term is less commonly used for the time display on digital clocks and watches.
A second type of clock face is the 24-hour analog dial, widely used in military and other organizations that use 24-hour time. This is similar to the 12-hour dial above, except it has hours numbered 1–24 around the outside, and the hour hand makes only one revolution per day. Some special-purpose clocks, such as timers and sporting event clocks, are designed for measuring periods less than one hour. Clocks can indicate the hour with Roman numerals or Hindu–Arabic numerals, or with non-numeric indicator marks. The two numbering systems have also been used in combination, with the prior indicating the hour and the later the minute. Longcase clocks (grandfather clocks) typically use Roman numerals for the hours. Clocks using only Arabic numerals first began to appear in the mid-18th century.
The periphery of a clock's face, where the numbers and other graduations appear, is often called the chapter ring.
The clock face is so familiar that the numbers are often omitted and replaced with undifferentiated hour marks, particularly in the case of watches. Occasionally markings of any sort are dispensed with, and the time is read by the angles of the hands. The face of the Movado "Museum Watch" is known for a single dot at the 12 o'clock position.
Usage examples of "clock face".
It was a big, moth-eaten, unmistakable relic, whose heavy, tarnished pendulum and time-stained clock face had made it a kind of focal point of our childhood.
Alice then looked up towards the large and impressive clock face that adorned the Town Hall's tower.
The old ones, with arthritic steps, joined their hands with the teenagers and moved in a widdershins pattern, in and out, as if making a clock face that reversed the clockwise movement of time.
Yes, the table had been there, the end of the bed there, Lilo Perris standing there, her head in the way of the clock face.
Glass and gears lay on the floor, the clock face read two-nineteen.