What time is it? Watches and horology

nor commit the time to learning how to use it properly.

Honestly, it's pretty straightforward. As both scales are logarithmic, there's a constant ratio between the values on each scale. If you have 1 on the inner scale and 2 on the outer scale, everything on the outer scale will be twice that on the inner scale at the same point. You do have to do some mental juggling with the decimal point, in this example you'd have 7 on the inner, and 1.4 on the outer.

The hour-minute markers are just shorthand for the number of minutes denoted by the inner scale (again, with a bit of fiddling of the decimal point location): 1:10 - 70 mins, 5:00 - 300 mins. Put the current speed at the 12 o'clock position, those hour-minute markers will tell you how far you'll travel at the given speed (or vice-versa).