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A More Modern Interpretation of the Cuckoo Clock

By Rain Noe - January 7

in Object Culture

The cuckoo clock is a truly bizarre combination of engineering and artistry. Their origin story is murky and difficult to swallow:

The accepted lore is that they were invented and produced by farmers in the Black Forest region of Germany in the 1800s. Farmers, the tale goes, turned to producing these in their winter months to make money.

I say hard to swallow, because this means: The farmers not only knew how to farm, but had enough engineering skills to build clocks; had the skills to construct the miniature bellows-and-pipes mechanism that imitated a cuckoo call; and had the woodworking skills to pull it all together, hand-carving each wooden gear with mechanical precision, as well as the elaborate fascia, which required more artistry.

In any case, a modern-day craftsperson in Turkiye is selling these cuckoo clocks that look like they're from the 1970s.

"The cuckoo bird comes out, chirps, flaps its wings and make the cuckoo sound every hour than goes back inside. Cuckoo count changes regarding time. (For example when it is 11 AM the cuckoo sound counts 11 times.)
The clock is silent between 10 PM to 5 AM. (Last cuckoo at 9 PM and First cuckoo at 6 AM.)

The clocks are powered by three C batteries (not included).

Multiple color options are offered:

If you want to hear what the cuckoo sounds like, there's an (unembeddable) video here.

These start at $485.

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Toby B

18 hours ago

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Does seem like it's quite possible, the Swiss watchmaking industry was born as a cottage industry, perhaps it's more that there were clockmakers in Germany who also happened to raise crops in the warmer months...

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Ryan Cee

23 hours ago

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Christ, that's an arrogant opening statement. If you have the wherewithal to maintain farming equipment when you're miles from the nearest town, then yes, you'll probably also have the ability to make simple gearing and whistles. Is the story about them making lots of them in their spare time for extra money true? Probably not, but crafting simple mechanisms like this in winter free time is hardly the stuff of legends.

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