What powers could an artifact pocket watch have that are not actually time-related or even "reverse/accelerate"-related...

Knowing the exact time something will occur.

It shows the time of death of the person in question, or the user, with a 50% chance of being one or the other.

It's a portable, bottomless battery for mechanical devices. Touch it to another clockwork device and energy from the pocket watch's magical spring is transferred to the spring of said device, allowing it to run for twice the amount of time it would normally when fully wound, or gives a damage boost to bows and crossbows. And the watch never runs down, obviously.

The watch stores kinetic energy from the motion of it's owner, by pushing the crown in this energy can be released all at once as a burst of energy.

The dials of the watch can be moved to cause changes in all other timepieces near it, those that see these changes will react inexplicably to these changes as if they were totally accurate.

The ornate secondary movement which displays certain star signs day by day, mysteriously follows no real order, and instead portends what the future will hold for the next 24 hours.

> Binding something in place with the chain until the clock completes a full rotation.

It acts as a key to a portal, allowing access to twelve worlds, but only when its hands point to an hour.

Each of the gears exerts an immense amount of force. It's basically the perfect power source for any sort of mechanical device.

For anyone unaware of TF2, the Dead Ringer is one of the Spy's alternate cloaking watches. When the user readies it, the next time they are hurt they resist much of the damage and turn invisible for a few seconds, creating a false body that falls to the ground, explodes, etc when they do. Perhaps not artifact level without some tweaking, but potentially useful as a magic item inspiration.

Was working on a similar concept not too long ago, basically mass produced low grade lich-hussars.

Dang, that gave me an idea.
>The nobles of a nation entering permanent undead dominance are converted to liches, given back similar charms (necklaces, watches, badges) to serve as their phylactery
>Each year they turn them in and are distributed anothers' at random, in order to enforce the values of togetherness and wholeness and dependence...and to make sure none have the power to rise up against the state
>When one is destroyed and does not reassume form, it is believed that whoever had their phylactery is responsible for tampering with it and they are sought out, leading to all sorts of intrigue and power changes
>Really they're all just decoys and the state has all the phylacteries housed together and eliminates them to move things along below as necessary

It has a laser and enough explosives to level a building.

Now do pay attention when I'm talking to you, 007.

I don't mean to stiffle any creativity, and some answers here show it could be done, but...

Why a pocket watch if you don't want it to be time related? How else could you relate to a pocket watch?

I might just not be creative enough, but to that's like saying you want a hammer that you're not allowed to hit anything with... But you still want to use it as a hammer

That being said, here's an idea of mine

>Keeps the holder alive as long as the clock is wound

A super powerful magnet

>that's like saying you want a hammer that you're not allowed to hit anything with... But you still want to use it as a hammer
When used by a skilled blacksmith, arms made with the hammer don't experience rust or corrosion, and are very difficult to break.

You magically always know the exact time of day.

Any time keeping device that comes into contact with it keeps time by it. So if you set it forward or back the time keepers it came into contact with change with it.

No, what I'm saying is that in your example, it's still a hammer being used as a hammer. OP wants a watch that does something fundamentally related to a watch, without relating to time.

Your hammer is still used to hit things.

What I'm looking for to give a proper analogy is to invent for me a hammer who's magic doesn't involve hitting things. BUT it can't be something that you could just put on another artifact, like a bound soul that gives good advice. The magic has to be intrinsically related to being a hammer without being related to hitting things.

It lets you breathe underwater, swim really fast, endure deep ocean pressure, etc. for exactly five hours once per day. It didn't have to be a watch for the magic to work, but you really don't want to lose track of time while using it.

Let's say you had a small magic gadget. Like, maybe a communicator, or a scrying device, or something, or a phylactery or shield generator, or something like that. It would be good to keep in a relatively inconspicuous form- you're not scrying through that wall, you're just raising your watch into the light to check the time!

Yes, but what OP is saying is that it has to be related to being a pocket watch. It can't just be disguised as a pocket watch, it has to make sense as something a pocketwatch would do. Otherwise, as with your examples, why does the fact that it's a pocketwatch matter?

The pocket watch plays a tune when the lid is open. Any one that hears this tune is compelled to fight a duel to the death once the song ends.

youtube.com/watch?v=0JPnR7C8mZQ

It could let you scry from pouches or holes that are ideal for storing things.

The wearer is perceived as very fashionable.

Also it lets them know the current time.

It runs very smoothly, keeping perfect time-- and everything around it runs with the same perfect, precise regularity.

The back of the watch where the wearer's skin touches the surface behind the time-piece has twelve, tiny hypodermic needles on it of which are imperceptibly small to feel, though if you look very close you can see them. They inject a very subtle poison which numbs pain and increases dopamine production slightly. Enough that you don't feel as the needles opposite dozen begin slipping down with clockwork certainty, while they always feel a little happier while wearing it and eventually stop taking it off.

The spirit within it continually conjures additional material, though at a likewise glacial pace and microscopic ammount, to continue slowly shifting more and more metal into the system. Nanite-seeming forms begin to structure themselves over the arm bones to create a small, new source for themselves there.

The wearer's body begins to optimize itself. Their thoughts are faster, they feel like they know more, they have a little less energy but never feel fatigued.

The wearer will likely notice when their eyesight improves and their irises take on an argent hue.

The artifact itself isn't a time-piece. It is a manifestation of the idea of clockwork cycles and the order implied by it. Not the fastest, not the slowest, not the strongest, but each part of their body is perfected for their goals and motives over time.

It was created as a repair system for the celestial clockwork nirvana, but was removed by an agent of chaos who didn't care what became of it. Likewise the keepers of law from whence it came didn't worry too much yet; unless their watchers are few and far between for some reason, the essence of clockwork has likely been replaced as part of operations which take entropy into account as part of the cycle.

It's minor, and I guess it's time related if you squint, but my sorceress carries around a pocketwatch that unfolds into a tiny but very complete orrery.

Pocket-watch of Running Late
The watch grants a massive increase in non-combat movement speed(to match a modern car if mounted, or twice as fast as a horse if on foot)
and reaction time (enough that you won't run into anything) if you are late to a preset place and time, it only grants this bonus if you move towards the destination, it doesn't make you/your mount any more tired than if you walked/rode as fast as you can normally for the same amount of time as long as it is used for less than an hour at a time. You set the destination and time by winding the clock ahead to the time that you need to be there then pressing the dial down twice while at the location you want to set. The effect wears off after you are a day late. Pressing the dial twice without changing the time will re-enter the last amount of time you entered. Pressing the dial twice with a time/destination entered will remove the time/destination. Using it for more than an hour will make you very hungry and tired. To use it simply hold down the dial with a destination set, anyone touching you when you activate it also gains the same effect for as long as you hold the dial, unless they move too far away from you or enter combat.

Not OP, but people in this thread don't quite seem to understand what a pocket watch is. Well, some do, but most don't. It's one of those flippy-topped watches, sometimes with a chain, not a strap-onto-your-wrist style watch (those, astonishingly enough, are called wristwatches).

So, for a power: it forces everything around it to move to its ticking. Things around it happen in discrete one-second chunks, and don't happen otherwise, so there's no way of doing something in half a second if you're near it.

Cleverly disguised magical lockpick. Place the clock's back against a keyhole, rotate and angle the hour, minute, and second hands to move tumblers.

> While still making perfect sense
> But not relating to time
Pick one, and only one.

The closest ones are
And FMA, where it was used as sort of a symbol (And in some cases, a power booster to alchemy.)
As this guy said. Why does it matter if it's a pocket watch?

oh my god, thank you. I thought I was going insane

What the hell is that thing, and where can I get one?

>What the hell is that thing
UR-1001

>where can I get one
Don't worry about it, unless you've got 400k USD to blow on a pocket watch.

>Pick one, and only one.
But why? There are some good propositions, like or and . Going for time powers is lazy.

It's designed for wizards, and shows them how much mana they have left.

Or emphasize the themes of clockwork and make it a reality anchor. It projects an aura around the holder in which the normal laws of reality always apply, even while in another dimension or fighting reality-warping eldritch entities.

Those first two are still time related. The third one's fine though. This did stretch my noodle and the only thing I came up with that wasn't related to time was a train conductor's timepiece that lets you control/summon a ghost train

Then the question on the third one is HOW the hypnotism works? Sure that sounds nice and dandy, but how do you make it work? Does anyone looking at it while it's moving get hypnotized? Or only when it's doing x-y-z? For generally, hypnosis is a technique, rather than a spell. If it were a spell, wouldn't the user end up hypnotizing themselves, whenever they went to check the time?

It measures magic density. More magic, the faster it ticks

They're not time related if the watch isn't working otherwise.

Okay, you got me bested with the portal one. The binding one I still don't see acting without some time component.

To remain productive;
>A grappling hook/rappelling rope that retracts the chain at the press of a button

No, the first one is not. You can just move the hands around.

...

Make it a mago version of the Omnitrix

The pocket watch counts down to when something (you need) will happen.

I think the OP meant "this is not supposed to manipulate time in any way" which would be the most obvious answer. Making it completely unrelated to time is just silly. I mean, the 12 portals thing is fun and thematic, doesn't REALLy involve time (in what way? just because it's 12 hours?) and would be pretty powerful. Similary binding is ok because the time thing is very peripheral. Otherwise you could argue that any non-instantenous effect is time related.

I would say it doesn't work. Either the hands are immovable without destroying the clock or it just doesn't work. No cheating.

>reality anchor.
It being a part of Mechanus would be interesting, I think.

ah, that makes more sense. So no manipulation of time, but more likely a time limit or window...

How about the Path-Finder's Pocket-watch of Passage, which, when activated shows the user the path of least resistance to whichever thing they say. Kind of like Jack Sparrow' s magical compass, only useful.

You can swing the pocket watch by its chain, that can stretch much longer than expected. The watch can either be used as a very long and small weight to hurt people or to grab stuff. As a weapon it's actually effective as if it weighted much more.

Setting the alarm makes it so, despite no alarm sounding, you wake up refreshed at the appropriate time

And if you're already awake at the set time?

You still wake up. Enjoy your new reality.

>give a timepiece a power that has nothing to do with time
>which still makes sense for a timepiece
>and is artifact-tier

You pain me, OP.

When wound up, the watch will record its user's actions over the amount of time it was wound for, then create a duplicate of the user in the present performing those exact actions. Total recording time cannot exceed twelve hours. The duplicate does not have a copy of the pocket watch, and anything taken off the duplicate will vanish. The duplicate will attempt to complete their routine as closely as possible to the original recording, adjusting only for new obstacles and ignoring attacks. If killed, the duplicate vanishes. Passing off the watch to someone else while recording will cause the resulting duplicate to spontaneously transform into that person at the correct time, but there'll be no indication that a watch was handed off outside the hands moving around. If the wearer is killed while recording, the duplicate will faithfully recreate all actions up to the point of murder, at which point it vanishes.