Re: Funny thing, English grammer, and it's inertia.
<And clocks or watches.
Most people still say [for example]
"It's quarter after three", when
many clocks and watches today are DIGITAL DISPLAY.
"Quarter to, or quarter after": both phrases emerged from centuries of use of mechanically analog clocks and watches.
this one's pretty weak, since an hour can be broken up into quarters. Years are broken up into quarters without the need for a circular calandar, why not hours.