America’s love for the cuckoo clock goes back a long way. People here have hung cuckoo clocks on their walls for years, often as a reminder of their family’s heritage or of their travels to Germany, home of the fanciful clocks. Or maybe they just like the unique sound made by the little bird for which the clocks are named, as it pops out to announce the time of day.

Whatever the reason, cuckoo clocks have been a popular item since the first one was built by Franz Anton Ketterer in the mid-1700s in Germany. There, in the Black Forest region, Ketterer and other clockmakers hand-built the first cuckoos in what began as a cottage industry. During the long winter months, they would carve the wood and make the clocks, and then in the spring, with the better weather, they would peddle their wares in the villages. As European immigrants settled in the States, they brought their cuckoos with them. And while cuckoo clocks hang in many homes here today, the majority of them are still produced in the Black Forest. Many companies here import the clocks from Germany, but the majority of them are still handmade by a small number of German manufacturers. Because they are handmade, you never see two cuckoos that are exactly alike.

Through the years, some Japanese-made cuckoo clocks have appeared on the market here, some made as early as pre-war. The movements are not the same as those in the German-made clocks. Most German cuckoos, especially those with musical parts, have Swiss-made movements, the most common of which goes by the trade name of Regula. Another difference between Japanese- and German-made clocks can be seen in the cases that house the clock movement. The relief of the woodcarving is not as prominent on the Japanese clocks. You can see the German carving is much deeper and more detailed. The Japanese cases are usually machined and don’t have the same texture as the German ones. Japanese cuckoos were more popular a while back, but there are very few on the market now. The chances of getting a cuckoo now that wasn’t made in the Black Forest are pretty slim. The reason most people buy a cuckoo clock is for its sentimental value. They are a novelty clock, and often given as gifts or bought as a remembrance.