Why do clocks go clockwise?

Before mechanical clocks, people told time with sundials. In the Northern Hemisphere, a sundial's shadow moves from west through north to east as the Sun crosses the southern sky, which is the direction we now call clockwise. Mechanical clocks were developed in medieval Europe, and clockmakers made their dials move the same way people were used to. If clocks had first been invented in the Southern Hemisphere, where sundial shadows turn the other way, 'clockwise' might mean the opposite direction. Some novelty and specially designed clocks do run anticlockwise, such as the clock on the Jewish Town Hall in Prague.