I was thinking about this while watching an amazing Chinese historical drama, "Longest Day in Chang'an," which has a "24"-like real-time structure. But instead of the beep... beep... beep... you have this one guy in an official building intently watching a water clock and pretty much every episode he bangs a drum on the hour and yells out the exact time and a kind of proverb, like "1 o clock!! The shadows reappear!"

Great show and there are lots of interesting historical details like this. Good post too.