There are many different magical objects in the Wizarding world, so it’s no surprise to me that wizards have enchanted clocks as well. Enchanted clocks can do many different things depending on the enchantments that have been placed on them. In this article, we’ll take a look into a few of the known magical clocks within the Wizarding world.

Deep within the Ministry of Magic, there is a room filled with clocks. The purpose of this room and its clocks is unknown, and information about it is restricted because the only people allowed inside are Ministry workers known as Unspeakables. However, we do know that it exists and that there are clocks inside this room. What the clocks do is a mystery yet to be solved.

Before I talk about the most famous enchanted clock, I would first like to mention another which is not as pleasant, but still really interesting. The grandfather clock at 12 Grimmauld Place. This clock is enchanted to shoot a metal bolt at someone whenever they walk past. As I said, not so pleasant.

Now, onto the most famous (known) enchanted clock in the Wizarding world. The Weasleys’ magical grandfather clock. This clock is special in many ways, the first being that it doesn’t actually tell the time. However, it is even more useful than a normal clock. 

This enchanted clock is bewitched to show where members of the Weasley family are. It has 9 hands, each one has a picture of a Weasley on it, and the face of the clock has different sections, which the hands point to. These sections are labelled with different possible locations where the members of the family could be. “Home,” “work,” “school,” “lost,” “travelling,” “hospital,” and “mortal peril” are a few of the locations which are listed on this clock.

However, it is unknown how this clock actually works. A lot of this is up for speculation, but I believe that there are many different enchantments at work. However, I’m not sure about all of them. Some possible charms I can think of are the Homonculus Charm, the Tracking Charm (also known as Appare Vestium), Avenseguim, or the Supersensory Charm.

The Homonculus Charm tracks the position of every person within a mapped out area. 

The Tracking Charm, Appare Vestium, is used to reveal and illuminate recent traces made by people. This includes magic, footprints, and track marks within an area. This spell was used by Newt Scamander in 1927 while he was tracking down an Obscurus in Paris.  

Avensegium is the incantation for a charm that turns an object into a tracking device. This is done by making the object return to the person or place that it came from.  

A version of these spells could have been used to tell where a person is at a certain point in time. But we can’t know for sure.

The Supersensory Charm could have been used as an aid to these other enchantments to help tell the location of the Weasley family members and whether or not if they were in danger, therefore explaining how the clock would know if someone is in “mortal peril.” After all, it is used to enhance the target’s senses to more easily perceive their surroundings. 

However, these are just guesses, and all these charms and explanations have their flaws in explaining how the clock works.

What other magical clocks are there? What do they do? And what kind of enchantments have been cast on them?