1/ Burning incense as time measure
It is quite a common phrase in ancient Chinese poems to use burning incense to describe time. This tradition might have originated from monks using incense to feel time for their sitting meditation. Burning one incense usually refers to around 30 mins. The incense at the time might have been made with a certain standard in mind.
(In that same logic, is cigarette also a measurement of time?)
In fact one of the side jobs of the time keeper in ancient Chinese cities was to mark calibrated incense with individual lines, to denote length of a burn for sale to the public.
2/ Powdered incense clocks
I only discovered this while looking up the above wikipedia page
Incense seal clocks are essentially specialized censers, that work through burning lines of powdered incense seals (香印 xiāng yìn in Chinese; 香時計 ko-dokei in Japanese). They were used for similar occasions and events as the stick incense clock. While religious purposes were of primary importance, these clocks were also popular at social gatherings, and were used by Chinese scholars and intellectuals. The seal was a wooden or stone disk with one or more grooves etched in it into which incense was placed.
Powdered incense clock with 100 units, the duration will last 24 hours.
《宣州石刻》中记载，曾有人制出百刻香印，一副香篆分为一百个刻度，循序燃尽便是一个昼夜。更文字记录了其大小尺寸：“百刻香印……每刻长二寸四分，凡一百刻通长二百四十分，每时率二尺，计二百四十寸。凡八刻，三分刻之一，其近中狭处六晕相属亥子也、丑寅也、卯辰也、巳午也、未申也、酉戌也，阴尽以至阳也……每起火，各以其时，大抵起午正，或起日出……”
洪刍《香谱》也载：“近世尚奇者作香篆，其文准十二辰，分一百刻，凡燃一昼夜矣。”
一昼夜被划分为一百个刻度，打一炉香篆，燃烧完就是一昼夜，每每觉得创造出百刻香印香范的匠人一定是个理想主义者，又或者是个处女座，碗口大的一枚香范，精确到了每一秒。
Incense clock in Japan, the Edo period
3/ water clock
The water-powered mechanism of Su Song's astronomical clock tower, featuring a clepsydra tank, waterwheel, escapement mechanism, and chain drive to power an armillary sphere and 113 striking clock jacks to sound the hours and to display informative plaques