No livro de origem ( Peter Pan e Wendy ), o relógio não de fato pare de bater. Peter supõe que está ferido, mas bate no truque de fazer o som de si mesmo para que os predadores pensem que ele é o crocodilo e se assustem:
Odd things happen to all of us on our way through life without our
noticing for a time that they have happened. Thus, to take an
instance, we suddenly discover that we have been deaf in one ear for
we don't know how long, but, say, half an hour. Now such an experience
had come that night to Peter. When last we saw him he was stealing
across the island with one finger to his lips and his dagger at the
ready. He had seen the crocodile pass by without noticing anything
peculiar about it, but by and by he remembered that it had not been
ticking. At first he thought this eerie, but soon he concluded rightly
that the clock had run down.
Without giving a thought to what might be the feelings of a
fellow-creature thus abruptly deprived of its closest
companion, Peter at once considered how he could turn the catastrophe
to his own use; and he decided to tick, so that wild beasts should
believe he was the crocodile and let him pass unmolested. He ticked
superbly, but with one unforeseen result. The crocodile was among
those who heard the sound, and it followed him, though whether with
the purpose of regaining what it had lost, or merely as a friend under
the belief that it was again ticking itself, will never be certainly
known, for, like all slaves to a fixed idea, it was a stupid beast.
Peter reached the shore without mishap, and went straight on; his legs
encountering the water as if quite unaware that they had entered a new
element. Thus many animals pass from land to water, but no other human
of whom I know. As he swam he had but one thought: 'Hook or me this
time.' He had ticked so long that he now went on ticking without
knowing that he was doing it. Had he known he would have stopped, for
to board the brig by the help of the tick, though an ingenious idea,
had not occurred to him.
No que diz respeito ao filme, o relógio parece continuar operando apenas pelo poder da magia do cinema.