Kepler published his three laws in 1609, and the second of them says that a line joining a planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times. Which means the planet moves fastest when it is closest, slowest when it is furthest, and that the orbit itself is the clock face.
On this page the periods are real: Mercury at 88 days, Earth at 365, Neptune at 60,190. The distances are not — they are compressed logarithmically so that all eight fit on one plate. The consequence is that the inner planets appear to race and the outer ones appear frozen, which is exactly the impression you get from watching the sky for a year.