So as promised here's a short test I created in After Effects the other day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hKqgOR1ZJI
The exact same effect could be created in FCE if you're interested, with a bit more work. For example, say you want a 30 minute clip going at normal speed.
1. Photoshop the hour, minute, and second hands and put them on separate video tracks above the clock face.
2. Set the respective anchor points of the clock hands to their bases, so that when rotated eventually they will get rotated around their base and not around their center.
3. Arrange the hands on the clock to where you want the time to start, say exactly 12:00 so all the hands are facing up.
4. Place a keyframe at the beginning for the minute hand's rotation, then go to the end of the half-hour clip and change the value to 180 to place another keyframe and rotate the minute hand so it is now pointing at the 6.
5. Place a keyframe at the beginning for the second hand's rotation, then go to the end. Since 30 minutes have gone by, we'll want the second hand to undergo 30 complete rotations. So you should set the keyframe for the second hand at the end to 30x360, or 10,800.
6. Place a keyframe at the beginning for the hour hand's rotation, then go to the end. Since only half an hour has gone by, we'll want the end value of the hour hand to be 1/24 of a full rotation, or 15. Change the value to create a second keyframe.
If I explained this right, you should be able to see that with a bit of math you can animate your very own analog clock. You'll just need to adjust the values based on the time you want the clock to be showing, and how fast you want time to be going.
After Effects makes this especially easy because of the presence of expressions (little bits of JavaScript code that control how parameters are animated). I could set the value of the second hand's rotation to +thisComp.layer("minute hand").transform.rotation*60+, and no matter how I change the minute hand the second hand's animation will automatically be updated to follow it. I could similarly do the same kind of thing with the hour hand. The advantage of this is I could experiment with different values and animation of the minute hand without having to constantly update the other two hands' keyframes to follow it.
However, if you plan in advance and decide how you want your animation to look before you start keyframing, you should be able to create the same type of animation without too much trouble in FCE.
Hope that made sense,
Sasha
P.S. If you find it easier, you could always use Ian's approach!