Mike,

I take exception to some of your answers.

1) If you watch has stopped, what good is setting it? You have to fix it first.
Maybe it simply needed winding? Afterward it would need resetting.. correct?

2) On earth, up has meaning. Since the instructions were from earth, they do have meaning. Which is movement away from the center of the earth.
What if you were standing on Mars and said, "Look UP there's Earth!" Would you ne pointing Down (Toward the center of the Earth)?? OR is it RELATIVE to where you are? OR if on Earth you see the sun straight 'UP' at noon is it further from the center of the earth than it was that morning?

3) You can measure the absence of something. A hole in the ground is the absence of ground. You can measure the hole's depth, the circumference, and it's capacity.
That is measuring volume of a space. How do I know there was dirt in it in the first place or that it was flat on top. Can you tell me to the penny how much money you don't have? or how much furnature is NOT in your house? Or how slow twice as slow is? Can you measure the amount of light missing from a dark black room? I think you see my point.