Independent 9,661 / Phi

Cryptically, horologists (or watch and clock specialists) might get together for a “watch” night!; in some Protestant churches, 24 December and 31 December are watch nights

G (=good) in KINSHIP (=family)

Someone who is not so busy has “less on”, less to do

EC (=business district, in London) in ESPIAL (=observation, espying)

H (=Hungary, in IVR) in [BEE (=second letter, of alphabet) + I’VE (=I have)]

A TO M (=thirteen characters, i.e. first half of the alphabet) in ANY (=no matter which)

*(U<sable> + FOR SLEEP); “primarily” means first letter only is need for the anagram, indicated by “possibly”; & lit.

E (=European) + <r>ULER (=monarch; “dismissing foremost” means first letter is dropped); the reference is to Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707-83)

Double definition: to “stay” proceedings is to suspend them AND “stays” in corsets are bones

OST (=East German, i.e. the German word for east) + RACISM (=discrimination)

MINDS (=is upset, i.e. bothered by) + E.T. (=SF film)

BE (=happen, occur) in <d>OCTOR (=medic; “losing day (=D)” means letter “d” is used)

*(ONCE + A) + IAN (=Scotsman); “at sea” is anagram indicator; Oceanian means “covering Pacific region (=entry at 26)”

[E.G. (=say, for example) + I] in <w>RON<g> (=incorrect; “centre of” means first and last letter are dropped)

TRACT (=area) in <sc>ENE<ry> (“middle of” means central letters only are used)

Homophone (“we hear”) of “whiled” (=passed time) + [R (=river) in BIDS (=offers)]

STATE (=country); “moving South (=S)” means letter “s” is moved to a later position in the word

ODI (I + DO (=am satisfactory); “turning up” indicates vertical reversal) in HOES (=gardens, as verb)

IN (=fashionable, trendy) + [ALL (=each and every) in STATION (=place, position)]

DANE (=European) in ERG (=work unit); “picked up” indicates (here full) vertical reversal

{I (=one) in [H (=hard) + OP (=work, i.e. opus)]} + O (=over, on cricket scorecard) + {[LLOI (O (=over, on cricket scorecard) in ILL (=evil); “rising” indicates vertical reversal)]}

PALM (=award, symbol of victory) + Y (=year); palmy is flourishing, thriving, glorious, as in “the palmy days of the 1970s”

*(<a>P<p>E<a>L + FOR ARTIST); “regularly” means alternate letters only are used; “at work” is anagram indicator; & lit.

PLAINT (=objection, cf. complaint) + EXT<ra> (=additional material; “artist (=RA, i.e. Royal Academician) excluded” means letters “ra” are dropped); in computing, plain text is text that is readable and uncoded, hence “readily perused”

R.E.M. (=rock-band, from USA) + BRAND (=trademark) + T (=time); the reference is to Dutch artist Rembrandt (1606-69)

*(NASA SUN); “shot” is anagram indicator; Susanna is the main female character in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (1786)

ACT (=the event) + AEON (=age); in Greek mythology, Actaeon was a hunter turned into a stag by the goddess Artemis

MO<r>OSE (=blue, i.e. depressed); “run (=R, on cricket scorecard) from” means letter “r” is dropped

B (=book) + RING (=round, as noun)