Cuckoo Clocks Today

As much as I love cuckoo clocks, I do not think I would want an entire wall of them in my home. Can you imagine? Every 15 minutes, some cuckoo clock would ding, whirr, ring, or chime. The noise would be deafening, if not downright annoying.

Regardless of the sheer volume of noise, what if they did not all keep the correct time? One would no sooner breathe a sigh of relief that the "timely" din had ended, than a latecomer would start in on its routine.

Just think about how many hours out of a day would have to be spent winding them. The old cuckoo clocks did not run on batteries; they had to be wound! How many times could you actually do that, before you tired of it, and picked up the phone to see if someone would take them "off your hands"?

I suppose if they were all battery operated, it would not be so time-consuming to own them, but the sounding of the quarter hour, the half hour, and the hour would be enough to dissuade all but the most dedicated cuckoo lover.

We only had one, when I was a child. As an adult, I have none.

Hundreds of years ago...there were no cuckoo clocks.The first mention of a clock that sounded like it was a cuckoo clock, was found in 1629. The clock was reputedly owned by a prince, but the whereabouts of that clock are unknown.

There are a few more historical references to clocks that operated with the mechanisms found in cuckoo clocks, today, but again - no clocks to accompany the descriptions. Some of the writings about the clocks even suggested ways to improve them, so there was evidently a bit of common knowledge about cuckoo clocks, even in the 1600's.

In the 1700's, a clock was referred to that was in a palace, in Berlin, Germany. The clock was said to play several different church hymns, and sound off every fifteen minutes. That clock also, has vanished in antiquity.

Sometime between 1740 and 1750, the first cuckoo clocks emerged from the Black Forest area of Germany. There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that they were not first manufactured there, but to this day, the most elaborate, elegant, and expensive cuckoo clocks come from the Black Forest area.

Many spectacular cuckoo clocks can be seen at the Cuckooland Museum, in Cheshire, England, at the Deutsches Uhrenmuseum in Germany, and in a private collection in Minneapolis, which can be seen by appointment only.

Despite the passage of hundreds of years, the mechanism that operates most of the cuckoo clocks today, has virtually been unchanged.

The six photos below, are from a place in Pennsylvania that offers cuckoo clocks to suit anyone's taste. They have the traditional Black Forest cuckoo clocks, stylish, modern cuckoo clocks, and some that appear to be old cuckoo clocks, but which are battery-operated.

They have graciously consented to allow us to showcase a few of them. Enjoy!

Oh, by the way, if you are in Pennsylvania, do try to see these impressive clocks "in person". They are located the village of Lahaska, in Bucks County, at the Peddler's Village. It is at the intersection of Route 202 and Route 263. If you are fortunate enough to have GPS navigation, use the address below, as the GPS system will not easily recognize the route address.

2400 Street Road, New Hope, PA 18938.

You can also contact them through the Peddler's Village website, and enjoy seeing their beautiful clocks, here: Fehrenbach Black Forest Clocks

More Information on the Gallery of Clocks below:

The first five cuckoo clocks below, are 8-day clocks. Why they are called "8-day" instead of "7-day", is a mystery, as it seems the best time to rewind an 8-day clock, is 7 days after you wound it the last time. There are also cuckoo clocks that are called 1-day clocks. That one is easy to figure out; it will need to be wound once every 24 hours. The 1-day cuckoo clocks will usually run for approximately 30 hours, but it is easier to remember to wind it up once a day, at the same time of day.

Often, you can tell the difference by looking at the weights that hang down from the chains below the clocks. The larger, heavier weights indicate that you are viewing an 8-day clock, and the smaller weights indicate the clock is a 1-day clock. If there are three weights, one of them will be appropriated to operate any musical mechanism, or moving figures on the clock.

If the weights remind you of pine cones, they are supposed to, and the weights are often referred to as pine cones, too!

The last clock in the gallery below, is a battery-operated cuckoo clock. That is a nice option we have today, so one is not constantly forgetting to rewind the clock, necessitating resetting the hands to the proper time.

We hope you have enjoyed seeing these six featured clocks, and we are most gracious to the people who allowed us to showcase them here for you to enjoy. If you like the clocks, take a few moments to read their interesting story, here:

About German Clocks and Gifts, and the Fehrenbach family

Today, cuckoo clocks can be made of wood, plastic, metal, resin, or any combination of these. Instead of being painstakingly made one at a time, many are mass-produced in factories.

We have seen cuckoo clocks with:

• goats
• cats
• bears
• dogs
• horses
• deer,
• dancers
• lovebirds
• beer drinkers
• see saw riders
• milkmaids
• hunters
• well, this list could go on for a long, long time!

Of course, all of the cuckoo clocks have a cuckoo bird, or another figure that pops out, or dances, or twirls to signal the time. Some of them only strike the hour, some strike the half hour and the hour, and some strike every 15 minutes, every half hour, and every hour. There are some cuckoo clocks that can easily be adjusted to strike only on the hour, too!

The cuckoo clocks of today are a far cry from the original ones that craftsmen took months, even years, to create - with the exception of some of the most elaborate and expensive ones. That fact notwithstanding, the public worldwide still has a passion for cuckoo clocks, and it is evident that they will be with us for a long, long, time! Pun intended.