My department says Numbers and letters should be upright; they are meant to be read without turning your head.
Designers work in the art department, not editorial, and they do whatever they want with forms and elements.
Negotiations between departments are always stressful.
Gads, the memories that are coming back …
I suppose in one sense we don’t need any numbers; we all know the count is from 1-12. The only real deviation are the rarely-attempted random hour sequence watches.
Mike