They had nothing to compare the clocks against, and I don’t think the stars and the sun would have made an useful target for comparison.
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Our ability to judge the accuracy of time grew as ” clock technology ” grew.
At first, it was just the sundial. With a nice one, you can get within 5 minuets of the time of day. While we were in the sundial period, time was always relative to the sun. We didn’t really take into account ( or even know? ) that the day was just a little less that 24 hours.
Also, the sun and stars are pretty accurate. You can check this yourself if you want to. Find a longish tube, some cardboard, and something to hold the tube. Stick the cardboard on one end of the tube. You’re just using it to create shadow. point the tube at the sun so that you can see the full circle. Clamp it in place and start your clock.
come back the next day, 5 mins before the time that set the pole and see if you can see a difference. If you can, congrats, you just measured 24 hours to within 5 mins.
After that, we have the pendulum clock. here is where we can get pretty accurate.
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