What is time? Is it a dimension through which physical systems evolve, a continuous background against which change unfolds, or an emergent construct inferred from physical processes? Despite its central role in physics, time enters theory almost exclusively through measurement, and every operational realization of timekeeping ultimately reduces to the functioning of clocks. This raises a foundational question that is rarely addressed explicitly: what physical quantity do clocks actually count? In this work, we adopt an operational perspective and introduce the Geometric Phase-Projection (GPP) framework, in which time is treated not as a primitive background parameter but as an ordered count of physically readable sections generated under a universal finite propagation bound. Within this framework, relativistic time dilation arises as a geometric projection effect, and the Lorentz factor emerges as a consequence of phase allocation rather than as a primary postulate. Although the GPP construction is fully consistent with standard relativistic predictions at the level of expectation values, it indicates a distinct and testable implication when timekeeping is modeled as an event-counting process: synchronization jitter. This effect originates from an intrinsic mismatch between discrete section counts of systems in relative motion—a temporal Moir'e--type phenomenon that is absent in models assuming perfectly continuous time. We emphasize that the present work does not purport to introduce a new physical theory, nor does it seek to modify the dynamical structure of special relativity or quantum mechanics. Rather, it shows that if time is generated through discrete event formation, a specific and falsifiable operational signature must necessarily arise. By linking geometric projection directly to clock synchronization, the framework outlines a concrete experimental strategy based on high-precision phase-locked optical clocks to probe whether temporal structure is fundamentally continuous or discretely generated. The framework further offers a local, non-retrocausal account of delayed-choice interference experiments by identifying interference patterns with global phase coherence conditions required for section formation, rather than with backward-in-time influence. The predicted synchronization jitter is expected to scale with relative velocity and gravitational potential differences and to lie within the sensitivity range of existing optical-clock networks, thereby transforming a longstanding conceptual question about the nature of time into an empirically tractable hypothesis testable with current metrological technology.
İlker Uğurlu (Fri,) studied this question.