A clock is, from an information-theoretic perspective, a system that emits information about time. One may therefore ask whether the theory of information imposes any constraints on the maximum precision of clocks. Here we show a quantum-over-classical advantage for clocks or, more precisely, the task of generating information about what time it is. The argument is based on information-theoretic considerations: we analyze how the accuracy of a clock scales with its size, measured in terms of the number of bits that could be stored in it. We find that a quantum clock can achieve a quadratically improved accuracy compared to a purely classical one of the same size.Received 28 January 2020Revised 20 September 2021Accepted 21 December 2021DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.3.010319Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasQuantum channelsQuantum entanglementQuantum walksQuantum Information