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Cuckoo Clocks
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here to see our selection of Cuckoo Clocks.
 Cuckoo
clocks are clocks that are dear to many people. A cuckoo clock is
not just a clock - it is a clock with character. The sound
that a cuckoo clock makes as the minute hand strikes 12 every hour
imitates the cuckoo bird. A cuckoo clock imitates the cuckoo bird
using small bellows and whistles.
Cuckoo clocks are so dear and popular that they
now have not just a conventional sound, but a conventional shape,
as well. Cuckoo clocks are generally made to look like birdhouses
for the cuckoo or chalets. Cuckoo clocks are not mantle clocks -
they always hang on a wall. Generally, cuckoo clocks are in wooden
cases which usually have natural things like leaves or deer carved
into it. And typical cuckoo clocks also have a cuckoo bird.
The cuckoo bird will pop through a small trap door when the clock
is striking. Then it vanishes behind the door until the next hour.
Not only does the bird move out of the clock on the hour, the bird
is usually also made to have motion while it is out.
Not all cuckcoo clocks simply have make a bird noise on ever hour.
Some cuckoo clocks play a music box tune before striking the half-hours.
These sorts of musical clocks will have other pieces that play into
motion at these times - sometimes it is a wheel of people
that go in and out of the clock or animals.
Few cuckoo clocks are spring driven. Most of them are weight down.
So, the weights that hang from a cuckoo clock are another conventional
feature - they are usually cast as pine cones. The pendulum
of a cuckoo clock is often a carved leaf at the bob. More recently,
there have been cuckoo clocks sold that have a fake quartz battery.
These ones do not have the traditional cuckoo bellows. Instead,
the sounds are made electronically.
For the most part, though, the cuckoo clock has not changed much
since the mid 1700s when Franz Ketterer first invented it in Schonwald,
Germany. It was Franz Ketterer who invented the bellows and whistles
that give the cuckoo clock its distinct sound. Without Franz Ketterer,
we would not have the wonderful cuckoo clock.
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