During measuring rotation slowing in the early days of slowing, there will be different reports from different parts of the world. Latitude matters greatly, as the angle of sunlight is less directly overhead the further from the Equator one gets. Why would this confuse a direct measure of minutes, from day-to-day, since theoretically the march from dawn to dusk should be measured, steadily, regardless. The more accurate measure of rotation slowing is close to the Equator. During the early days of slowing when sunrise and sunset are confused and seeming to occur earlier, a shorter day while approaching the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, and later, a longer day while approaching the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, only the high noon point can be used with any degree of accuracy.
For the same reason, high noon with the sun directly overhead and not at all where the sunlight approaches at a slant, to Earth, is more accurate. Direct overhead light is more intense, a flood less likely to be bent. A slant is less intense, has more opportunity to bend as it is going a somewhat further distance, a situation that exists and frankly lingers at the hours both preceding and receding from high noon. Planet X is close to the Ecliptic and close to the point where it is between the Earth and the Sun, but is to the right of the Sun. Thus the light is bent toward Planet X before being bent back, giving the illusion that the Sun itself is to the right, appropriately for the day. For both hemispheres this is also the case, noon sunlight seeming to arrive from a Sun jogged slightly to where it would normally be, thus disguising the slowing.