I have never seen one fade to pure white. I would guess the paint may have come off or was never there. You will know more when you get it apart.
I did not document the fading of any of the needles of my original examples but remember being surprised at how "white" some of them had faded...Of course, my car spent it's first 30 years out in the So. California sunshine so the amount of sun is certainly a huge factor. Under the center lens bezel, the sun doesn't get to that area of the needle as much. This is where I discovered my second hand was actually yellow and not white. Some red remained on the other hands though they were faded past pink.
If the car was originally ordered with a clock, the Marti report will call out the clock, it is as simple as that.
I believe you might discover that the clock was integral part of the Interior Decor Group, so you may not typically see it called out on the Marti if you have that upgrade.
... If the issue here was due to fading, it is odd that both hands did not fade in similar fashion.
Odd...Perhaps yes, that would be unusual. Impossible? Not sure. I suppose if the car sat in a sunny area a long time in one location with the one hand shield in the shade and the other in the sun...
As I mentioned, though I did not document the condition of my clock hands or other gage needles but I do know the fading was severe. For example, the red line on my speedometer (with trip meter) had faded completely to white, no sign of it being red at all. Also, the trip meter (though not "red") wheels were exposed so much to the sun that the (black) numerals were all falling off from bonding to the white wheels (best description I could come up with) though the odometer numerals were not at all affected by the sun.
The power of solar fading is REAL and unless you see how bad it is in areas such as the Mohave Dessert area, you cannot always get a full picture of how damaging it can be. I am curious where the O.P.'s car spent it's life and if it was outside much of said life, perhaps "stored" a long period of time in a very sunny area.
