[Update: This Wikipedia article explains what's going on. Apparently Japan sometimes uses a modified version of the 12 hour clock. But instead of going from 12:59 to 1:00, this version goes from 11:59 to 0:00. And this occurs at 12:00 am and 12:00 pm.
In the typical 12 hour system, time skips from 12:59 to 1:00 – meaning there is an empty space between 0 and 1. But in this system, time begins at 0:00 and continues until 11:59, leaving no empty spaces.]
I just looked up at my Apple TV and realized the time said 0:18 PM in the top right corner. I always set my clocks to 12 hour instead of 24 hour mode so I was wondering why it would ever read as 0:00. And the fact that it was doing this at 12:00 pm instead of 12:00 am was even more confusing since the way a 24 hour clock reads 12:00 am is 0:00, but 12:00 pm is usually read as 12:00 using both systems.
I went into settings to change it to 24 hour mode to see if that changed anything. And just like I expected, the time switched back to 12:18. Then I switched it back to 12 hour mode and it went back to 0:18 pm.
That’s when I realized that when a typical clock goes from 12:59 to 1:00, it skips anything less than 1.
And the more I think about it, the more I like having a clock go from 11:59 to 0:00. It feels a little weird to say out loud that the time is 0:18 PM. But the more I think about it, it’s even weirder that we all live with a missing hour in our clocks.
[which is just my own personal opinion]
Has anyone found any other devices that support this style of 12 hour clock?
[edit: I’m also posting this in Japanese because I was wondering if this time format may have some linguistic root which is why I’ve only seen this in Japan, but not in Europe]
by manuru-neko