Late 90’s models onwards had auto clock set. One channel in most cities, (usually a PBS station) had a subcarrier signal the VCR clock would use to set itself. You were still on your own setting it up to record something unattended.
The last regular VHS deck my parents used had this feature, but I could never get it to work according to the manual. But if you left it off, it would magically set itself. I never could catch it in the act either. Tempted to plug it in again one of these days and see if it will still set the clock. The cable system here still has a few analog channels, downconverted from digital of course.
Curiously, my DVD recorder has no such feature, but setting the clock is fairly simple compared to the arcane sequence of buttons our first family VCR in 1984 required. 😉
In our case it was more we never left it on when not in use, and when it’s off (assuming it was plugged in) it would instead display a
–:-- I’m not sure if it even had a clock when it was on.