Getting system time

I want to use Max to create a 24-hour composition. Rather than have it start at the beginning when the patch is loaded, however, I want it to jump to a certain place based on the listener's current system time (thus something like cpuclock wouldn't work).

This is most likely going to be a difficult undertaking, but first things first: I want a method of getting the local system's time. I know how to do this in Javascript, but this is a function that will be repeated over and over for (ideally) a full 24 hours. If there is a more efficient way to do this, I'd love to know about it.

Best,
-Zach