Help me understand. . . .

[ChuckElias]

No offense, guys, but you're not helping me. I want a "bottom-line" rule to go by. My buddy told me last weekend that whatever the clock says when you look up, you can re-set it to, b/c that's definite knowledge. That's a great bottom-line rule if it's true. Is it true?

If not, what's the rule? When you look up and see the clock still running, you:

1) Put up the time that you initially saw.
2) Put up the time that you initially saw minus one second (allowing for the timer's reaction).
3) Put up the time that you initially saw plus one second, assuming (by interpretation) that one second passed before you looked up.
4) None of the above.

The fact that there are only 5 replies to this question tells me that I'm not the only one who is unclear on this point.