Hypernym for "clock" and "watch"
Yesterday I said: "I can't read analog clocks", but my interlocutor corrected me saying that what I was pointing at was a watch and not a clock.
Now, I am aware of the difference between the two, but how can I say I can read neither analog clocks nor analog watches? Is there a hypernym for both of them?
The word is timepiece:
Any device that measures or registers time; a clock or watch, especially one lacking a chime or other striking mechanism.
But it's not really used much, and as the usage notes on that page explain, your interlocutor can just as easily object that clocks are not strictly timepieces. So you can keep on looking to say something like "I can't read analog timekeeping devices" or what have you, or you might as well save yourself the trouble and simply say, "I can't read analog".
I can't read (the hands on) clocks.
It stands to reason that the speaker is referring to any time mechanism which uses the traditional 12-hour dial.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, the 12-hour analog dial and time system gradually became established as standard throughout Northern Europe for general public use. The 24-hour analog dial was reserved for more specialized applications, such as astronomical clocks and chronometers, and timetables, especially for railway and airline travel.
Wikipedia suggests that the term clock face is used for both clocks and watches
A clock face or dial is the part of an analog clock (or watch) that displays the time through the use of a fixed-numbered dial or dials and moving hands. In its most basic form, recognized throughout the world, the periphery of the dial is numbered 1 through 12 indicating the hours in a 12-hour cycle, and a short hour hand makes two revolutions in a day. A longer minute hand makes one revolution every hour.
I suppose you could say: "I can't read twelve-hour dials" and be understood, but it's not very idiomatic.
EDIT
The expression read a clock is understood to mean watches and all mechanical clocks.
On a British reality show called "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!" one contestant confesed to not being able to tell the time.
... he earned himself some airtime by admitting that he didn’t know how to read a clock-face. That didn’t matter, he insisted, because his watch — reportedly worth £70,000 — was strictly for show, and anyway it didn’t have any numbers on its dial. ‘It’s fashion,’ he says, adding that it’s ‘much easier to look at your phone’.
Source Daily Mail
Ok, earlier today I was at a restaurant and some kids (maybe highschool) asked what time it was so I pointed to a clock on the wall and they stood there sort of silent. Then I heard one say to their friends, "I'm really bad at telling time can you guys read it?"
Long story short none of them could read it but after a few minutes they figured it out. Also now that I think about it, I have overheard some teenagers talking about how they can't read a clock.
Source: www.neowin.net
Reading a Clock
Reading a clock takes practice, but after you learn how, it’s very easy to do! First, you’re going to locate the hour hand. The hour hand is the shorter of the two clock hands.
Source: wikiHow to Read a Clock
The idiomatic way to say this (albeit not a hypernym) is
I cannot tell the time
"To tell the time" is the idiomatic (phrasal?) verb used for the activity of determining the time from an analog dial; it would not imply a digital display, nor does it suggest a watch face or a clock face. "Learning to tell the time" is a common phrase among parents of pre-school children.
Incidentally, the use of 'analog' here is unnecessary; the context of 'clock' in the phrase 'reading the time from a clock' implies that the clock is analog, and the word is unusual in non-technical contexts. It is also incongruous; generally those who cannot tell the time do not know the word 'analog'.
It appears the American English version of "to tell the time" is "to tell time".
Less casual than "timepiece" is chronometer.