Midnight Watch Walkthrough: 24 Watches and 5 Specials
Spoiler warning: this article lists the exact par of all 24 main watches, the five special-watch triggers, the final clock's parameters and both endings. If you have not played yet, start with "The gear rule" and "Copper oil, ratings and the two upgrades".
Where these numbers come from: the 24 main watches, 5 special watches, 4 chapters and 2 endings, the par of every main watch, the copper-oil and rating rules, the difference between today's order and a replay, and the final town clock's setup were all checked against the game's own illustrated catalogue, the shop order slips and each order's results screen. Nothing here is from memory. The four screenshots come from the live build of 20 October 2026.
1. The gear rule: what one tap changes
Each watch is a ring of gears:
- Tapping a gear turns itself +1 quarter-turn and turns every meshed neighbour −1 quarter-turn;
- The goal is not an angle on one gear: every red missing tooth must return to twelve o'clock;
- A gear has four states (0/1/2/3 quarter-turns away from twelve). Four taps on the same gear are a no-op;
- Tap order does not matter, because each tap is addition in those four states;
- With 3–5 gears there is only the outer ring. From 6 gears up, a centre gear is added and meshes with every ring gear;
- A rusted gear cannot be tapped, but it is still turned by its neighbours — it is not an obstacle, just a gear you cannot operate directly.
Because there are only four states and at most seven gears, every board can be worked out completely, so the par the game shows is the true minimum. The hint points to the next gear on a shortest route, not one that merely "looks closer".
A two-tap example: on the first main-line run of watch 1, "The Bakery Alarm Clock", there are three gears, and only the top gear starts half a turn away (state 2); the other two are at 0. Tap the lower-right gear, then the lower-left gear, and all three return to 0 — par 2. Note that the screenshot's Bakery Alarm Clock shows four gears and par 4, which is not the same board as the first main-line run's three gears and par 2. The par table below is only for the first main-line run.
2. The 24 main watches
The game runs in four chapters of six watches. Each repair moves the town clock one minute; all 24 move it to 00:24.
| # | Watch | Owner | Stopped | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Bakery Alarm Clock | Su Wan | 00:01 | 1 |
| 2 | The Returned-Letter Pocket Watch | Old Zhou | 00:02 | 1 |
| 3 | The Classroom Wall Clock | Teacher Lin | 00:03 | 1 |
| 4 | The Waterproof Watch at the Landing | A Hai | 00:04 | 1 |
| 5 | The Wristwatch in the Nursery | the head nurse | 00:05 | 1 |
| 6 | The Stopwatch in the Projection Room | Old Mai | 00:06 | 1 |
| 7 | The Clock by the Stove | the noodle-shop owner | 00:07 | 2 |
| 8 | The Watch Under the Scale Pan | the fishmonger | 00:08 | 2 |
| 9 | The Old Pocket Watch in the Shop | Grandma | 00:09 | 2 |
| 10 | The Station Wall Clock | the dispatcher | 00:10 | 2 |
| 11 | The Alarm Clock Beside the Razor | Old Chen | 00:11 | 2 |
| 12 | The Clock on the Organ | the nun | 00:12 | 2 |
| 13 | The Wedding Watch | A Hai's wife | 00:13 | 3 |
| 14 | The Diver's Watch | the salvage captain | 00:14 | 3 |
| 15 | The Newsroom Alarm Clock | the reporter | 00:15 | 3 |
| 16 | The Shutter Timer | the photo-studio owner | 00:16 | 3 |
| 17 | The Flower-Selling Child's Wristwatch | the flower-selling child | 00:17 | 3 |
| 18 | The Ship's Clock at the Lighthouse | the lighthouse keeper | 00:18 | 3 |
| 19 | The Ledger's Paperweight Watch | Grandma | 00:19 | 4 |
| 20 | The Watch in the Glasses Case | Grandma | 00:20 | 4 |
| 21 | The Watch Hand | Grandma | 00:21 | 4 |
| 22 | Grandma's Diary | Grandma | 00:22 | 4 |
| 23 | An Old Key | Grandma | 00:23 | 4 |
| 24 | Grandma's Pocket Watch | Grandma | 00:24 | 4 |
The four chapter titles and their one-line summaries:
- The Stop: in the first year after the clock stopped, the town was still waiting to hear it ring.
- Habit: by the third year, everyone had learned not to look at the clock.
- That Night: the last boat in the fog, and the people on shore.
- Grandma: she stopped the clock so that one person would still be on the way.
The story does not need guessing. Watch 4: A Hai says the last boat left at 00:04. Watch 13: A Hai's wife goes to the landing every day and stands until the fog lifts, forty years without an umbrella. Watch 22: Grandma writes, "I stopped it. That way he is still on the way, not yet ashore." Watch 24: inside the lid, two words are engraved: "wait for me." The final town clock waits for the decision you make for her.
3. Main-line par table
This table is for the first time you repair each watch in the main line — the board you see when the shop first hands it to you. Replay gives the same watch a different fixed board, and the daily job changes board every day, so their par differs. Do not use this table for either of those.
| # | Watch | Gears / par | # | Watch | Gears / par |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bakery | 3 / 2 | 13 | Wedding | 5 / 5 |
| 2 | Returned letter | 3 / 2 | 14 | Diver | 6 / 4 |
| 3 | Classroom | 4 / 3 | 15 | Newsroom | 6 / 6 |
| 4 | Landing | 4 / 3 | 16 | Shutter | 6 / 6 |
| 5 | Nursery | 4 / 4 | 17 | Flower child | 6 / 5 |
| 6 | Projection | 4 / 5 | 18 | Lighthouse | 6 / 8 |
| 7 | Stove | 4 / 5 | 19 | Ledger | 6 / 6 |
| 8 | Scale pan | 5 / 4 | 20 | Glasses case | 7 / 6 |
| 9 | Grandma's old watch | 5 / 3 | 21 | Watch hand | 7 / 8 |
| 10 | Station | 5 / 5 | 22 | Diary | 7 / 10 |
| 11 | Razor | 5 / 5 | 23 | Old key | 7 / 11 |
| 12 | Organ | 5 / 6 | 24 | Grandma's watch | 7 / 9 |
The difficulty curve — how many gears, the par range and the rusted gears for each main watch number:
| Main watch | Gears | Par range | Rusted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 1–2 | 0 |
| 2 | 3 | 2–3 | 0 |
| 3–4 | 4 | 2–4 | 0 |
| 5–7 | 4 | 3–5 | 0 |
| 8–10 | 5 | 3–6 | 0 |
| 11–13 | 5 | 4–7 | 0 |
| 14–16 | 6 | 4–7 | 0 |
| 17–19 | 6 | 5–8 | 1 |
| 20 | 7 | 5–9 | 1 |
| 21–22 | 7 | 6–10 | 1 |
| 23 | 7 | 6–11 | 2 |
| 24 | 7 | 7–11 | 2 |
4. The five special watches
Special watches do not advance the town clock and are not part of the 24 minutes; they are reasons to come back. Once the condition is met the watch is recorded in the atlas and an order appears in the shop.
| Special watch | Owner | Stopped | Chapter | Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Watch That Came at Night | someone who left no name | 00:00 | 2 | Come back three days in a row (three daily jobs on consecutive dates) |
| The Watch Under the Counter | the previous owner | 00:00 | 4 | Buy both upgrades (oil can + desk lamp) |
| The Twelve O'Clock Watch | the mayor | 00:12 | 3 | Repair 12 main watches |
| The Watch That Never Stops | the watchmaker | 00:00 | 4 | Earn 10 S ranks |
| The Watch Deep in the Drawer | unsigned | 00:24 | 4 | Repair all 24 main watches |
"Three days in a row" is counted by the daily job: one settlement per day; a gap of more than one day resets the streak. If you only play the main line and never the daily job, you cannot get The Watch That Came at Night.
A special watch's board is not rolled from your main-line progress. Each special watch sits in one fixed difficulty band between 20 and 24 according to its own number, so the same special watch always shows the same board in the shop — the daily job is the only one that changes every day.
5. Copper oil, ratings and the two upgrades
The rating looks only at this run's taps, not your best ever:
| Rating | Condition |
|---|---|
| S | taps ≤ par |
| A | taps ≤ par + 2 |
| B | taps ≤ par + 5 |
| C | anything else |
Copper oil for one job:
Base 18, plus 5 for each point of par, plus 12 more if you earn an S. The oil can multiplies that by 1.3, and the daily job by 3.
- Hint: 25 copper oil for the next gear on a shortest path; no charge if the board is already solved;
- Oil can: 200 copper oil, then +30% per job;
- Desk lamp: 160 copper oil, adds three hints;
- Clearing all 24 main watches at S pays 1,375 copper oil in total (30 + 5×par each, before the oil can's 1.3×); both upgrades cost 360, so they are affordable and do not block the main line.
6. Daily, replay and the main line
The same watch opens on three different boards:
| Mode | Board | Reward |
|---|---|---|
| First main-line repair | fixed, as in the par table above | normal oil; only the first repair advances the 24 minutes |
| Replay | a different fixed board | normal oil; does not advance the town clock again |
| Daily job | changes every day; at least as hard as main watch 5 (4 gears, par 3–5) | triple oil; one settlement per day; the streak depends on it |
So replaying the same watch does not reroll the board; only the daily job changes each day. For S-rank practice, replay is stable; for copper oil, the daily job pays triple; for the story, repair in main-line order. In the shop, main-line orders say "Keep repairing" or "Repair another", the daily job says "Take the job", and a special-watch order says "Take this watch".
7. The last watch: the town clock
After all 24 main watches, the shop offers "The Town Clock":
- 7 gears, 2 rusted solid (the 2nd and 4th from the left);
- The board you actually get has a par of 9;
- Solving it produces no memory page and goes straight to the ending choice.
There are two endings, and the choice cannot be undone:
| Ending | You choose | Key closing lines |
|---|---|---|
| Let the Clock Run | push the last tooth into place | the clock strikes twenty-four times; Grandma's watch stops at 00:24, "not a refusal; it is a beginning"; the next morning, the first boat comes to the landing |
| Let It Stop | close the lid and hang the key behind the door | the clock stops at 00:24, "like a sentence not yet finished"; the town lives as before, still not looking at the clock; but from that day there is one more person at the landing, and "she stands until the fog lifts" |
After the ending the shop stays open; if the clock is running, it keeps running. The atlas, copper oil and S ranks remain.
8. Completion checklist
- Are all 24 main watches repaired? The town clock should be at 00:24 and the final order should appear;
- Are all five special watches triggered? The easiest to miss are The Watch That Came at Night (three consecutive daily jobs) and The Watch That Never Stops (10 S ranks);
- Have you bought both upgrades? They are the trigger for The Watch Under the Counter and make the rest cheaper;
- Do you settle the daily job every day? A gap of more than one day resets the streak, and The Watch That Came at Night needs three fresh consecutive days;
- Is the final town clock solved? 7 gears, 2 rusted, par 9;
- Have you decided the ending? "Let the Clock Run / Let It Stop" cannot be undone.
Related guides
- Midnight Watch game page: mechanics, facts and real screenshots
- ERRATA complete walkthrough
- Unclaimed complete walkthrough
- Night Shift Rules complete walkthrough
Changelog
- 2026-10-23: First published. The 24 main watches, 5 special watches, 4 chapters and 2 endings were checked against the in-game catalogue and each order's results screen; every main-watch par was worked out on the board as it first appears in the main line; the town clock's par of 9 and its two rusted gears were checked on its own board. The four screenshots come from the live build of 20 October 2026.
- 7 November 2026: three figures in this guide were wrong and are now corrected — "Grandma's Diary" (watch 22) needs 10 moves, not 7, and "An Old Key" (watch 23) needs 11, not 9; clearing all 24 main watches at S pays 1,375 copper oil, not 1,350. Two descriptions of the game were also corrected: a special watch's board is not rolled from your progress (each one sits in a fixed difficulty band), and the last five watches do not share one difficulty band — the table above now lists them separately.