It's called a range clock. It's not a time piece, but a signal to the distance in thousands of yards to the target. That was pretty common up until around Pearl Harbor.
Usually there was another one pointed aft. They had a small hand (10,000 yards) and a large hand (1,000 yards).
There was also a device on board correctly called a range clock that was more closely just that, but that's a more complicated story that indicates the arrival of fire control.