Okay before everyone has a panic attack, this happened the last time they had to shut down for the maze event (when they did pin trading room again). I suspect the clock is an automatic and simply starts counting after VMK is closed for a certain amount of time. Last time, the clock did the same thing. VMK opened about 15 minutes later and then we got the announcement of the maze being cancelled and the pin trading event in its place. This was on the Hong Kong event for those who may not recall the details.
It may be that the VMK Staff is 1) trying to fix the problems with the game and 2) trying to come up with an alternative to the mazes.
Let's all take deep breaths before we go into VMK withdrawal until we see if there is an official statement.