Over the past several weeks, engineers and technicians working at General Motors Corp.'s sprawling proving grounds west of Detroit started noticing a curiosity: an increasing number of wall clocks had the wrong time, or stopped working altogether.

The reason: As part of a drive to cut $15 billion in costs, GM is no longer keeping the 562 clocks in working order, which will eliminate the expense of replacing and disposing of the clock's batteries and the cost of resetting them twice a year for daylight-saving time.

It's...