Thanks for trying it out! I don’t think people who don’t get this game are stupid, as it doesn’t do a good job of explaining itself – tutorialization in game-jams is a bit of a weak spot of mine.
When you connect a gear with less teeth to a gear with more teeth, one of them will be rotating more quickly than the other. With belts, you can connect two gears of differing teeth together, but they’ll rotate equally quickly (it does require an extra space though). This can be used to rotate the gears that drive the hammers up at differing speed, which can make sure the bells ring at approximately the same (and correct) time, winning the game.