From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbeat the clockbeat the clockto finish something very quickly, especially before a particular time The company managed to beat the clock on delivering its new system. → beat
Examples from the Corpus
beat the clock• Secondly, it has to beat the clock.• Sometimes I wake early to beat the clock.• Use a timer and ask the student to beat the clock.• Their aim - to beat the clock and each other in a competition to find the fastest draw in the country. 