Only when the clock stops does time come to life

I don't suppose anybody ever deliberately listens to a watch or a clock. You don't have to. You can be oblivious to the sound for a long while, then in a second of ticking it can create in the mind unbroken the long diminishing parade of time you didn't hear.

Time is a fluid condition which has no existence except in the momentary avatars of individual people. There is no such thing as was - only is.