Doomsday Clock #1: 10 Things Everyone Totally Missed
2. November 22nd, 1992
This date is no accident. No accident at all.
November 22nd, 1992. It's the first line of Doomsday Clock, as Rorschach tells us (as the unreliable narrator). Obviously, it lets us know how much time has passed since the end of Watchmen, to allow for the world we see now.
It is also, coincidentally, the exact release date of the issue itself.
However, there is more to it than that.
1992 was an important year in DC and comics in general. It was the year that Superman, the character who started it all, died. In Superman vol. 2 issue 75, Superman died at the hands of Doomsday in front of a shell-shocked DC Universe (and fans the world over).
It was one of the darkest moments in the mainstream DC Universe, even if the Man of Steel's death didn't last all that long.
It is no accident that the Watchmen world is still in 1992, nor that the comic is released in November even (November 1992 was the release date of the issue of Superman's death).