We relate physical time with the topology of magnetic field vortices. We base ourselves on a formulation of unimodular gravity where the cosmological constant Λ appears as the canonical dual to a variable which on-shell becomes four-volume time. If the theory is restricted to a topological axionic form (viz. a parity-odd product of an electric and a magnetic field), such a time variable becomes the spatial integral of the Chern-Simons density. The latter equates to helicity, so that unimodular time is transmuted into the linking number of the vortices of the topological magnetic field, times their flux. With the added postulate that this flux is a universal constant, the flow of time can thus be interpreted as the progressive weaving of further links between magnetic field vortices, each link providing a quantum of time with value related to the fixed flux. Non-abelian extensions, and targetting parameters other than Λ are briefly examined, exposing different types of vortices and a possible role for inter-linking leading to new phenomenology.