Bitwig's official tutorial, presented by Alexander Ewald, walks through the full two-way MIDI clock sync workflow between Bitwig Studio and external drum machines, groove boxes, or synths with built-in sequencers.
To run hardware in sync with Bitwig, connect via USB or MIDI, open the synchronization tab in the Dashboard, and activate MIDI Clock under MIDI Sync Out for your device. Enabling Stop/Start sends transport messages so hardware like the Polyend Play starts and stops with Bitwig's transport. If your gear supports it, SPP (Song Position Pointer) keeps playback locked to the correct position, and MTC (MIDI Time Code) is also available with a configurable global frame rate.
You can also send MIDI clock directly from the HW Instrument device, but activating both that and the sync settings clock for the same instrument at the same time will cause timing issues, so only use one path per device.
For the reverse setup, where Bitwig follows external hardware, set the sync method to MIDI Clock in the Dashboard and choose your hardware as the MIDI input. With an Analog Rytm as the example, pressing play on the hardware triggers Bitwig to follow. The external device must be configured to send MIDI clock and transport signals for this to work.