OK, got it.
Somehow the three following symlinks disappeared, so to get the clock back had to do the following:
cd /home/QtPalmtop/plugins/applets/
su
ln -s libclockapplet.so.1.0.0 libclockapplet.so.1.0
ln -s libclockapplet.so.1.0.0 libclockapplet.so.1
ln -s libclockapplet.so.1.0.0 libclockapplet.so
and reboot, and it's back.
It uses a different font now, seems before it was bold, now it's regular, so it's really thin, which beats me, dunno why, but at least it's there.
Does anyone know how the change the font?
Later.