If you have a wristwatch with hands you may not want to identify the exact minute (this can be a little difficult if it has a smaller face), but if it's 5 minutes either way then a "quarter-to" is close enough.
When I was in college, it was a thing for students to design and build a digital LED clock out of random logic. A friend of mine wanted to make one that would tell time only in 15 minute chunks, as nobody needed more precise time than that.
Yes, I did a digital clock, too, my first digital design/build. It never did work right.