The Black Forest cuckoo clock is a beautiful piece of artwork that is unique, beautiful and fun. Although any clock with a cuckoo that chimes on the hour or half hour is considered a cuckoo clock, this site focuses only on the more traditional and typical cuckoo clock.

The Black Forest Cuckoo Clock

These handcrafted works of art are a wall or shelf clock that are often heavily carved and decorated in the Black Forest style. They announce the hours with a sound like the call of the cuckoo, and the appearance of an imitation bird popping out through a door with each sound. Many cuckoo clocks also have figurines that, on each hour, may appear through a small door and circle around into another door on the opposite side of the clock.

Cuckoo Clock Movements

There are two types of movements for cuckoo clocks: the 8-day cuckoo clock needs to be wound only once a week and the 1-day cuckoo clock runs for about 30 hours before needing to be wound again. 8-day clocks are recognizable by the larger pine cones (weights).

If you hang the clock high enough, about 6 1/2 feet high, you won’t have to wind it as frequently as there will be a longer distance for the weights to drop.

Cuckoo Clock Styles

Although each cuckoo clock is unique and there are unlimited designs, there are basically two main styles, the carved cuckoo clock and the chalet cuckoo clock. Carved style cuckoo clocks usually have traditional carvings attached to the case, and are theme inspired by nature or hunting. Chalet style cuckoo clocks look like miniature alpine houses, and often have moving figurines, animals or structures.

The nature cuckoo clocks are often referred to as traditional or leaf cuckoo clocks. They have a floral or leaf decoration, decorative branches and a cuckoo bird carved prominently on the top of the clock. The hunter cuckoo clocks include carvings of animals and foliage sometimes with elk’s heads with large antlers carved on the top of the clock in place of the bird that is on the traditional clocks.

Chalet or house cuckoo clocks are made to look like an alpine house and will sometimes include surrounding foliage, animals, figurines or structures like mill wheels.

Beside a cuckoo that sticks its head out to chime the hour, cuckoo clocks will often have one or more carved figurines that may make some kind of movement with each second or on the hour, like chopping wood, drinking beer. Many have figurines appear out of a small door on the side of the clock and move or dance around to the other side of the clock and disappear through another small door, only to reappear again on the next hour.

You can also get cuckoo clocks that include electrically powered effects such as lights and smoke coming out of a chimney. However, the authentic Black Forest clocks are mechanically powered (no batteries required). One pine cone weight drives the time, the second weight drives the cuckoo bird and cuckoo sound, and if the clock has a third weight, it drives the musical movement. So all cuckoo clocks with three weights play music, and sometimes features moving figurines.

Black Forest Style Cuckoo Clocks

Black Forest style cuckoo clocks are of the highest quality and handcrafted in the Black Forest region of Germany by master carvers. Manufacturers include Anton Schneider, Hekas, Hubert Herr, Rombach and Haas and August Schwer, among others.

If you purchase from another manufacturer and want a genuine Black Forest clock, make sure the maker is certified by the Black Forest Clock Association (VdS). All original Black Forest style cuckoo clocks carry the certificate of authenticity by the Black Forest clock association. In order to receive this certificate the cuckoo clock has to operate mechanically, it has to be handmade in the Black Forest, and all major parts have to come from the Black Forest.

Origins of the Black Forest Style Cuckoo Clock

The Black Forest region is home of the cuckoo clocks. In 1730, clockmaker Franz Ketterer created the first cuckoo clock in Schoenwald in the Black Forest. He was able to imitate the natural cuckoo call with two different bellows. Today the Black Forest style cuckoo clocks tick in homes all over the world and have made the Black Forest country famous. In fact some cuckoo clocks include Schoenwald dress on the figurines on the clock.

During the long winter months, when the farms were snowed-in, these beautiful clocks were created with love of detail and fine craftsmanship in different styles with rich carvings. Over time, cuckoo clock production became the home industry of the Black Forest people. In the summer months the clockmakers traveling on foot with their clocks on their backs sold their clocks throughout Europe. These were the first German clock makers pioneering the well known German clock industry.

Today the carving and clock cases are still handmade by skilled workers following century old traditions.

How Cuckoo Clocks Work

If you have even owned a cuckoo clock you may have wanted to take it apart to see exactly what’s inside and how they work.

Most cuckoo clocks are pendulum driven and use a small bellows and pipes mechanism that has remained almost without variation since the 1700’s to produce the cuckoo call.

The cuckoo clock technology has only been around for about 350 years. In 1656 the pendulum clock was invented and it is a technology we still use today. Before then, timekeeping was done with sundials, water clocks, hourglasses and spring-powered clocks. These methods however were not very accurate. It wasn’t until the pendulum clock was invented that accurate timekeeping was possible.

In the 1600’s inventors realized that a pendulum will swing at the same rate back and forth as long as the weight at the end of the pendulum is at the same distance and the pendulum never stops swinging. In 1656, the Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens created the first pendulum powered clock.

All pendulum clocks work the same way whether the clock is the size of a building or a grandfather clock or a small cuckoo clock. The difference is in how fast the pendulum must swing; the grandfather clock pendulum swings once every two seconds while the cuckoo clock pendulum swings two times every second.

Placing small weights on a cord or chain and then attaching it to a series of gears that have been set to not allow the weights to fall too rapidly, a shaft on which the second hand is attached will make a complete rotation once every 60 seconds. And with that, you have a reasonably accurate timepiece.

Cuckoo Clock Price

The price of hand carved wooden cuckoo clocks run between hundreds of dollars and several thousands depending on the size, type of wood used, carving complexity, the cuckoo clock sounds, and the clocks movements. They are expensive because they are handmade clocks and the more expensive ones are of the highest quality possible in pendulum powered clock making.

Cuckoo clocks are fun, unique, beautiful timepieces and something you can pass from generation to generation. They are a reminder of simpler pre-electronics days and can bring a bit of that simple Black Forest clock magic to your home no matter where you live.