What has a face but no eyes, and hands but no arms?

How to think about it

1. Take the first pair: a face without eyes. Faces without eyes belong to things, not people, so list objects that have a “face”. Clocks, watches, dice and cliffs do.
2. Now the second pair: hands without arms. Only one item on that list also has hands.
3. Check that both clues agree. A clock face is the dial, and the clock hands are the pointers that move across it.
4. Make sure nothing else fits better. A watch is the same object in a smaller form, so the clock stands.

Why “a clock” is the answer

A clock has a face, the round dial with the numbers, and hands, the pointers that show the hour and minute. The dial has no eyes and the hands hang from the center rather than from arms. Both halves of the riddle describe ordinary clock vocabulary, which is why the answer feels so neat once it clicks.

Common wrong answers

• A watch. A watch is a small clock, so it is a correct variation rather than a different answer.
• A statue. A statue has a face with eyes and hands with arms, so it fails both halves.