This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #6: Is it really that [time] again?.
I was visiting my grandfathers workshop one day, when he received a call and had to run out for a bit. He told me to sit down and relax and he’d be back any minute. I sat down and noticed a sudoku puzzle that he seemed to have started sitting on the armrest. I took a look and noticed he hadn’t seemed to have made any real progress yet, so thought I’d give it a try as a way to kill some time.
I glanced at one of the clocks in my grandfathers workshop, so I could keep track of how long I worked on it, but unfortunately the one nearest me had no hands to speak of!
While that may be an odd sight in most places, my grandfather happens to be a Clockmaker and collector, so it’s not uncommon to see several clocks in various levels of repair and function. I looked around to see if there was another clock I could get the time from in here, but the next one I saw didn’t even have the correct month displayed.
I stopped looking for a clock to time myself off of after that and got back to the puzzle. Just when I was starting to get into the rhythm of checking different number possibilities, one of the digital alarm clocks went off!
I got up to turn off the alarm before settling back into the sudoku. While staring into the middle distance, trying to figure out the puzzle, I saw the minute change on one of the clocks.
I continued pondering for awhile before the chiming of a clock at the back of the room went off. The toll of the bell seemed to go on forever, but eventually it stopped and I was able to return to my puzzle.
I got back to the numbers, but I must admit I couldn’t seem to get any further than my grandfather did. I tried for a few more minutes, getting no further, before my eyes began to wander to another clock as I tried to think of a way I could solve the sudoku.
Eventually I had to give up, and find another way to pass the time. I’m normally quite good sudokus but maybe all the clocks are distracting me or something. I don’t know I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something doesn’t seem quite right... Maybe you can figure it out.
This is the part that has been updated to fix previous mistake
Hint 1:
After sitting for awhile, I exclaimed to myself "This doesn't make any sense! This whole thing is downright _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _!"
Hint 2:
I got up to pace around the workshop to let off some of my frustration with this sudoku, and seem to have found the clock hands for the first clock! But I've gotta say they are pretty weird...
I think I might just leave them off for now...
Hint 3:
As we move forward into spring, with this question remaining unsolved, it may be useful to note that the second clock is a digital clock made for most locations in North America, Europe, Chile, Paraguay and parts of Australia.
Apologies to all Puzzlers' who were stuck on this one. Thanks to @codewarrior0 I've caught that I made a mistake when copying the numbers into the final sudoku grid that was used in the image. It should be fixed and reasonably solvable now.
