The VdS Certificate
Every one of our mechanical cuckoo clocks carries the certificate of authenticity from the Verein die Schwarzwalduhr e. V. – your binding guarantee that the clock was made entirely in the Black Forest and runs purely mechanically.
Genuine Black Forest cuckoo clock - certified by the Verein die Schwarzwalduhr e. V.
The Quality Association
Verein die Schwarzwalduhr e. V.
Founded in 1987, the VdS brings together manufacturers, suppliers, dealers and collectors of the genuine Black Forest cuckoo clock within a single organisation.
Its mission: to protect the geographic origin of the Black Forest clock and the registered collective trademark "Die Schwarzwälder Kuckucksuhr". By far the largest share of all cuckoo clocks - several hundred thousand a year - is sold overseas. Customers there need to be able to rely on their clock genuinely coming from the Black Forest. That is exactly what the VdS certificate stands for.
1987
founded as the Förderverein Schwarzwalduhr e. V.
52
members - manufacturers, suppliers, dealers & collectors
2
registered collective trademarks protecting the origin
The VdS certificate stands for authenticity, origin and quality: it guarantees that every
certified clock was made entirely in the Black Forest - and works on a purely mechanical
movement.
From the association's bylaws
The VdS criteria
Only clocks that meet every requirement may carry the certificate. There is no exception for quartz or solar clocks - the certificate remains reserved for the purely mechanical clock.
1
Made in the Black Forest
The Black Forest cuckoo clock is manufactured, finally assembled and regulated exclusively in the Black Forest.
2
Wooden case
Clock cases, carvings, facades, lattice windows, bay windows, balconies and shingles are, as a rule, made of wood.
3
Mechanical movement
The heart of the clock is a mechanical movement. The cuckoo's call is produced by genuine pipes with bellows - not electronically.
4
Regional parts
Dials, hands, weights, pipes, tone springs and the gong come from the Black Forest, wherever manufacturing there is technically possible and economically viable.
Image slot
Official VdS certificate, cut out (bilingual DE/EN document)
Bilingual - for customers around the world
The certificate was designed by an artist from Schonach and is written in German and English - a sign that the genuine Black Forest cuckoo clock is at home on every continent. Each certified clock receives its own document.
Over 300 years of clockmaking
How the cuckoo clock came to the Black Forest
Few objects represent the Black Forest as much as the cuckoo clock - yet its history reaches back further than many people assume.
As early as the 17th century, Black Forest farming families began building clocks from wood during the long winter months - the start of a craft tradition that still shapes the region today. Cuckoo calls in clocks are even older: a clock with a cuckoo mechanism is documented at the Saxon court as far back as the early 17th century.
From the middle of the 18th century, the first cuckoo clocks were made in the Black Forest itself. Franz Ketterer of Schönwald is considered one of the pioneers, and a monument to him still stands there today. His clocks imitated the cuckoo's call with two small bellows and pipes - a principle that still works unchanged in our clocks today.
The cuckoo clock gained its distinctive shape around 1850: in a design competition held by the Furtwangen clockmaking school, architect Friedrich Eisenlohr won over the judges with a case shaped like a railway signalman's house. Over the following decades, this "Bahnhäusle" gave rise to the two styles that still define the cuckoo clock today: the richly carved hunting- and forest-motif clock, and the chalet clock with its detailed Black Forest house scenes.
The cuckoo clock is therefore not a single invention, but the result of two centuries of craftsmanship, ingenuity and competition - inseparably tied to the Black Forest. That makes the VdS certificate all the more important when buying one: it distinguishes the original from the imitation.
Where time becomes a story
The home of the cuckoo clock
The heartland of the cuckoo clock lies in the High Black Forest - between Triberg, Schonach, Schönwald and Villingen-Schwenningen. Our own manufactory in Gütenbach also sits right in the middle of this clockmaking region, where clocks have been built for over 300 years.
Gütenbach - Anton Schneider Söhne
Schonach
Triberg
St. Georgen
Schönwald
Furtwangen
Villingen-Schwenningen
Titisee-Neustadt
1987
Founding of the Förderverein Schwarzwalduhr e. V.
2005
Renamed to "VdS - Verein die Schwarzwalduhr e. V."
2006
Registration of the collective word mark "Die Schwarzwälder Kuckucksuhr"
2012
Registration of the collective word/figurative mark - today's origin seal
VdS Certificate
Authenticity you can see
Every mechanical clock from Anton Schneider Söhne carries the VdS certificate. Buy with the confidence of owning an authentic piece of Black Forest culture - made where the cuckoo clock is at home. Since 1848.
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