Eight Day Cuckoo Clocks

  Eight Day Cuckoos are pendulum driven and need winding every 24-30 hours.  Every hour a small door in the clock opens to expose the small, cuckoo bird which proclaims the hour by calling the appropriate number of Cuckoo sounds.    On the half hour, the cuckoo bird emerges and calls only one time.  Cuckoo clocks are almost always driven by adjusting weights, but a few Cuckoo Clocks use a spring to operate the mechanism.  Under the clock are two hanging  chains connected to cast iron weights, usually in the shape of pine cones.   One winds the clock by adjusting one of the chains, and the other weight when adjusted, works the mechanism to produce the sound of the cuckoo bird.    Small bellows and pipe within the clock mimic the sound of the cuckoo. While the Cuckoo bird is calling, a gong strikes the appropriate hours. In some varieties of Cuckoo Clock, while the gong is striking, the design of the Cuckoo bird enables it to move.  This works by a mechanical arm which lifts the back of the carved bird.  The mechanism to produce the cuckoo call is identical to the instruments in almost every variety of Cuckoo Clock since the middle of the eighteenth century.  The mechanism is so reliable that it is still in use almost without deviation until the present day. In the Eight Day Cuckoo Clock, the weights are heavier and larger than in the One Day Cuckoo Clock.

There are three styles of Cuckoo Clocks:

The Chalet Style Cuckoo Clock: 

 The basic design of the Cuckoo Cuckoo depicts three different styles of Chalets, and two of the styles originate in the Swiss Alps. A Chalet is a modest, wooden Alpine hut in Switzerland used for many years by sheep and goat herders.  This single word is the only Swiss addition to Cuckoo clocks.  The charming clocks during the latter part of the  nineteenth century were highly prized by tourists and became extremely popular in Switzerland.  Travelers loved the elegant articles as Swiss souvenirs. Of the three basic styles of chalets used to make the Cuckoo Clocks, two of them originate in the Swiss Alps.  The village of Brienz in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland gave its name to one style of chalet while the other chalet structure is Emmental also a locality in Switzerland, and which has a steep roof with a large overhang that almost reaches to the ground.   A Bavarian chalet also has a steep roof and overhanging eaves.  The Bavarian Chalet Cuckoo Clock is the most popular subject for the introduction of a Swiss music box which plays various melodies.  Carved leaves, birds, and animal heads adorn the outer, wooden framework of the Cuckoo Clock.  Typically, the clock dial is small and imprinted with Roman numerals.

Hunter Cuckoo Clock:

The Hunter or Deer Head Clock is a square, shaped box which accommodates a small, carved Cuckoo bird inside, and outside  the clock is usually displayed a hunting scene.  Positioned at the top of the clock in the center is the head of a buck deer complete with carved antlers. Arrayed around the dial of the clock often are hunter trophies and crossed shotguns.  Two weights hang beneath the clock along with a pendulum which help to operate the movement of the clock.

The Carved Cuckoo Bird:

A Carved Cuckoo bird sits atop her nest surrounded by leaves and birds.