nine o'clock in the morning
Moonshine more likely ! If one listened to that sort of people , a pretty sort of time one would keep ! I was sure that the sun would some day regulate itself by my watch ! '' Passepartout was ignorant that , if the face of his watch had been divided into twenty-four hours , like the Italian clocks , he would have no reason for exultation ; for the hands of his watch would then , instead of as now indicating nine o'clock in the morning , indicate nine o'clock in the evening . That is , it would have shown the twenty-first hour after midnight -- precisely the difference between London time and that of the one hundred and eightieth meridian . But if Fix had been able to explain this purely physical effect , Passepartout would not have admitted it , even if he had comprehended it . Moreover , if the detective had been on board at that moment , Passepartout would have joined issue with him on a quite different subject , and in an entirely different manner .