How to handle incorrect values in a constructor?

Question

Please note that this is asking a question about constructors, not about classes which handle time.

Suppose I have a class like this:

Answer 1

Typically you'd have a private/protected constructor and a public static factory method to create the Time object. It is not a good idea to throw an exception from a constructor because it wreaks havoc on inheritance. This way your factory method can throw an exception if needed.