How to scramble & solve a clock

Let's start off with the basics.
Clocks are made out of 3 things: Faces, Pins and Dials. 

Faces

Faces are what you are trying to solve on a clock. There are nine on each side.

Pins

Pins are the things that are in between the faces. There are 4 pins on every clock and they are located on both sides. These are used to change which faces are turned.

Dials

Dials are the wheels on the sides of the clock, they’re normally black and there are 4 on every clock.

(LingAo Clock available on KewbzUK)

So what is considered solved?

When all faces are pointing to twelve. We can tell this by the arrows on the faces pointing up towards the 12. This can be different on clocks but it often is a yellow circle with the number 12 inside of it.

There are 3 different 'Faces' to a clock

• Corners - These are located directly above and below the dials. These are directly linked, so if one corner is solved it will be solved on both sides.
  
  
• Edges - These are located in between 2 corners. They are not linked on the front and back of the clock. If one side of the clock has solved edges, it does not mean the back edges are solved.
  
  
• Center/s - There is only one on each side and it is the face that is in the center of the clock. You are ALWAYS moving one center, no matter the positioning of your pins.

Pin Positioning - Tips & advice

This can be hard to grasp at first but it gets easier the more you think about it.

First things first, if a pin is down, do not turn the dial closest to it, as that will affect the faces on the other side.

When a pin is up, the four faces around it will turn when you turn the dial closest to that pin. If two pins are up, any face around those pins will also turn. For example, if we were to push the top 2 pins up, which faces do you think will turn when we rotate the UL or UR dials? If you said the top 6 faces (or top 2 rows, then you would be correct).

If three pins are up, all but one corner will turn and so you can use any of the three dials closest to a pin that’s up to turn. If all 4 pins are up, all 9 faces will turn.

How to scramble A Clock

Let's start with some scrambling rules/basics

• Clock scrambles always start with 12 pointing up
• You can start scrambling from either side of the clock
• Each pin has its own name
  
• You always move the dial(s) that have there adjacent pin UP (IMPORTANT)

Okay, Let's start with Pin Names. Each pin has its own name just as each face on a speed cube has a letter associated with it (a notation), think of the pin names as a notation.

UL - Up Left          UR - Up Right          DL - Down Left          DR - Down Right

If your scramble says UR4+ you would perform 4 turns clockwise on the top-right dial making sure that the UR pin was pushed up and all the rest were down. The + or - after the number in any scramble is the direction of rotation of the dial. 

UR2+  Clockwise          UR2-  Anti-clockwise

The official WCA Scramble generator uses 0+ moves. This just means to skip the move. For example you might see, U0+, this simple means move the TOP 2 dials 0 in a clockwise rotation (so just skip it). 

You may sometimes encounter moves such as U, R, D or L with numbers after it and the same + or - symbol. This simply means you use both pins on that side of the clock (have them pointed up). L2- would mean both pins on the left hand side (UL and DL) would be pointed up whilst the 2 pins on the right hand side (UR and DR) were pushed down. Again, you must ALWAYS make sure that you are turning the dial that is next to an UP position pin.

ALL just means that you move all of the pins up and turn any dial the number or moves in the direction stated (ALL4+)

y2 indicates to flip the clock so the other side is facing you and 12 is still at the top

Try this scramble:
UR3+ DR3+ DL2+ UL6+ U0+ R0+ D2+ L3+ ALL3- y2 U5- R6+ D2+ L2+ ALL5-

Click here to check your Scramble

(Scramble Drawn by CSTimer and colours may be opposite to your Clock)

How to Solve the Clock

Clocks are solved in 3 steps:

First we solve the first cross

Then we solve the second cross

Then we solve the corners

Solving the First Cross

The first step in solving the first cross is to match your center face with any of the 4 edge faces. 

For this tutorial we are going to match the center face with the BOTTOM face, then the LEFT face, then the RIGHT face and finally the TOP face, however, it does not matter which order you do this in.

We are going to make this as easy to follow as we possibly can. Below you will find a series of images with bullet points beneath it. These bullet points will be steps to follow and we will also explain why we are doing the specific move.

1. Push the UR pin up making sure all of the others are down. 
2. Rotate the UR Dial until the center face matches the bottom face.

Your center face should now be pointing in the same direction as your bottom face.

3. Flick the DR pin up and make sure all other pins are down.
4. Rotate the DR dial until both the center and bottom dial match the left dial.

5. Ensure the DL pin is up and all others are down.
6. Rotate the DL dial until all of the previous dials match the right hand dial as shown above.

7. This step is slightly different. We need the 2 bottom pins up and the 2 top pins down.
8. Rotate either of the bottom dials until the 4 previous dials match the top dial.

9. Push all pins up and rotate and dial until all of the faces are pointing to 12 (or facing up).

Okay, your all done. Do a y2 so that the you now have the dark blue side of the clock facing you.

Solving the Second Cross

Repeat the same exact steps as we did in solving the first cross (but on the unsolved side).

Solving the Corners

This step is super simple. Let's get into it and solve the rest of our Clock. Next up we are going to solve the corners on both sides of the clock at the same time! We will be solving the corners in this order (this is just for tutorial purposes, you can solve them in any order during a regular solve).

1. Push down the UR pin.
2. Use the UL dial to match all 5 cross faces to the top right corner face.

Your clock dials should match the clock dials in the image above.

3. Make sure all pins are up apart from the DR pin.
4. Use the UL dial to match the center face to the bottom-right face.

5. Make sure all pins are up apart from the DL pin. 
6. Using the UL dial again, match the center face to the bottom-left face.

7. This time we want to push down the UL pin making sure all other pins are up.
8. Use any dial (apart from the UL dial) to match the 8 solved faces with the unsolve UL face.

9. Now bring all pins up and rotate any dial until all faces are pointing 12. 

YOUR CLOCK SHOULD NOW BE SOLVED!

Corners. Push one pin down. Use one the other dials to connect the solved cross to the corner. Push that pin up. Put another down. Solve the cross to that corner, and repeat for all corners and then push all pins up and solve to 12, and then congratulations! You’ve solved a clock for the first time