There are objects that get passed on within a household, and there are a great many that do not. Cuckoo clocks belong to the first group, and strikingly reliably so. A good share of the clocks that reach us in Gütenbach are sent in by someone who did not buy them.
Why that is can be said fairly precisely. And it also follows from this what to do when such a clock comes into your possession.
Why clocks in particular get handed down
A cuckoo clock hangs on the wall, in the living room, at eye level, and it makes itself heard. Anyone who grows up in a house with one has heard it thousands of times without ever looking at it. That is precisely why the call is later the thing that recalls the room, and not the sofa or the carpet.
On top of that: a mechanical clock lives long enough to be inherited at all. It has no electronics that fail, no software that becomes obsolete, and almost every part can be replaced. A clock built in 1965 runs today if someone has looked after it.
When you take on a clock
The first steps are the most important, and the first of them is: do not rush.
Photograph the clock before you take it down, from the front and from the side. That helps later when hanging it up again and with any question that comes up.
Look for the papers. Mechanical Black Forest clocks often come with a numbered certificate of authenticity, sometimes also the invoice or the instruction manual. These documents belong to the clock and should travel with it.
Check where it came from. There is usually a manufacturer's name on the back plate of the movement or inside the case. How to interpret it is described in Old cuckoo clock: determining value and origin.
Transport
This is where most heirlooms are damaged, and not in a fall but in the boot of a car.
Always take off the pendulum and the weights and wrap them individually. Slide a sheet of paper between the gong coil and the back panel so that nothing rattles inside. Pad any protruding decorative parts individually: foliage, antlers and figurines. Then put everything securely into a box of adequate size, with at least five centimetres of padding all round.
One and a half kilograms of weight loose inside the case will destroy more on a single drive than thirty years on the wall.
Getting it running again
Once the clock hangs in its new place, proceed as you would with a new one: align it vertically, hook in the pendulum, attach the weights, start it, set the time, watch how it runs. The full sequence is in Hanging and setting a cuckoo clock.
If it stops, the cause is harmless in the vast majority of cases: it is not hanging vertically, a chain is twisted, the pendulum is touching the case, or there is a weight from another clock on the chain. Only once all of that has been checked is it worth thinking about a repair.
When a service is due
A clock that has spent years in an attic should be cleaned before continuous use. The oil in the bearings ages, turns to resin and binds dust, and a movement running in that state wears at the pivots.
Signs to watch for: the clock only runs with fully wound weights. The call sounds hoarse or scratchy, in which case the bellows are usually porous. The music box breaks off in the middle of the melody. What a service costs and how it works is set out in Having a cuckoo clock repaired.
If the clock came from our production, we will take a look at it and as a rule put it back in order, even after decades. Where we have a suitable spare part, this is exactly where it is used. We cannot accept clocks from other manufacturers; for those, a clockmaker near you can help.
Do not repaint anything
The most common well meant mistake. An aged but untouched paint finish is worth more and looks better than a freshly repainted one, and the coat of paint removes precisely those traces from which age and origin can be read.
Take dust off dry with a soft brush, never with a damp cloth. Everything else is on our page on clock care. When in doubt: do nothing until someone has looked at it.
If you want to pass one on yourself
Three things make the difference between a clock that lives on and one that ends up in a box.
Keep it running. A running clock gets taken on, a stopped one gets stored away. A service every five to eight years is enough for that.
Put the papers with it. Certificate, invoice, manual, and if possible a sheet with what no document records: when and where it was bought, who hung it up, which room it hung in. That is the part which otherwise gets lost at the next handover.
Show someone once how to wind it. Anyone who knows the routine feels up to the clock. Anyone who has never seen it thinks it is complicated.
If nobody in the family wants it
That happens and it is no disaster. A well kept, running Black Forest clock finds buyers, through collectors, clockmakers and auctions. All that matters is the order: first have it identified for what it is, then decide. And restore nothing beforehand.
If you are not sure what you have in front of you, send us photos at info@schneider-clocks.com: the clock from the front, the inside of the case and the back of the movement. We will tell you whether it came from our house, which model it is and what strikes us about its condition.
In short
Photograph it, secure the papers, take off the pendulum and weights for transport, hang it vertically, get it running, have it serviced after a long standstill and repaint nothing. And if you are passing one on yourself: keep the clock running and put its story with it.
If an old clock is to become a new one because the first cannot be saved, you will find our models in the overview of all cuckoo clocks.