No , that has nothing to do with it. It always worked this way, only now people take a closer look at it because of the new background. Cepi Perez made it based on pressed and released events. To get the stock clock behavoir, it's needs to be based on clicked events. I am now combining these three, so I also can preserve the pressed icon effect.
if you use forced portrait mode, exiting the work map from the applet will freeze the replacement clock. So it is better to use it from "settings" anyway, until it perhaps will better integrate in the replacement clock.