Ok, what time is it on these clocks? That's what might happen if "hands free" expands to clocks.
Personally, I don't see anything pathetic, tragic, or problematic with kids not knowing how to read an analog clock. If they needed to know the time from an analog clock, they would have learned how easily enough. To the average teenager, a smartphone, smartwatch, or other digital device is more than adequate. How many teenagers, that know how to use a digital calculator, need to know how to use a slide rule or abacus?
Analog clocks are slowly fading into obscurity and will soon join water clocks, sand clocks, sun dials, and such in obscurity. They will be replaced by digital clocks as found on the now ubiquitous smart phones and most electronics with an RTC (real time clock) inside. The same thing is happening to analog gas and electric dial meters, which are being replaced by digital smartmeters. I knew how to read these, but many otherwise competent individuals did not. (I wonder how well the UK skool teachers would do with these?)
One reason that analog clocks will slowly slide into extinction is cost. It costs nothing to add the time to the display of an electronic device, but it does cost to build a dedicated mechanical or electronic time display mechanism with moving parts. There's also the noise problem, where many analog clocks make irritating clicking sounds every second, which makes sleeping in class somewhat difficult. Plus, the cost of dedicated timepieces are also going up:
I suppose the digital clock will eventually meet its demise and be replaced by GPS augmented reality wired directly to your brain. Not only will you know what time it is by merely thinking about the time, but you'll also know exactly where you are located.