Hi,
Differentiation between 11:14 and 14:11 will be quite easy, because when time from RTC reaches that time, a variable is toggled, which can be later used to determine exactly what time should be read now.
I'll admit, I don't really get that or exactly what you're doing but I thought the issue was lack of variable space.... If you're going to use flags to keep track of what's what then you might as well use those flag bits as part of the "time variable" to increase its resolution.

Anyway, if the resolution can be reduced then of course you can fit in any number of bits, just a matter of how much you need to reduce the resolution.

/Henrik.