Erick's take on our clock-finding experience

I'm feeling a little short on words with my blog these days. Can you tell? I'm posting pictures, but no stories of our adventures or emotional reactions to our destinations. I have been putting more energy into taking photos than telling about them. I should probably remedy that. But because I'm not feeling super "wordy," Erick has agreed to tell about the day we got our clock in his words. Thanks for being my guest blogger Erick!

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So buying a cuckoo clock, sounds easy doesn’t it?  I’ve seen a million cuckoo clocks in my time in Germany and thought I knew what I was getting myself into.  Apparently I was wrong.  I was willing to buy a clock at the first store we visited in Triberg justifying myself with the idea that all stores would have pretty much the same designs and it would be just a matter of pricing.  Tera of course wanted to look more (a trait I take credit for fostering in her, since she is very impulsive by nature).

We then went to the second store.  This is where my eyes started to open to how these clocks are made.  The second store was a nice family-run business that was willing to make the clocks to fit your needs.  They would change roof styles, dancers, music, etc. to fit what you wanted.  Tera was excited to support a family-run business rather than the bigger “corporation” style companies.  This is where I started to realize that these clocks were more assembly line than handmade.  I still was excited to spend all my hard-earned money on one but was losing my romanticized vision of the Black Forest cuckoo clock. Here are some clocks from the first two stores. Tera took pictures of them with her phone:

There was another frustration throughout this process, I was carrying David on my back and felt very awkward walking into these stores filled with small breakable items hanging everywhere. With three other young children wanting to touch everything, a parent's nerves wear thin very quickly.  So Tera and I did a lot of exploration with one child at a time while the other parent would stay on the sidewalk with the remaining kids. Then we’d give a list of things for the other to see as we “high-fived” and switched positions.

After what felt like a million stores, we finally got to the far end of town and found two nice shops.  One of them, The MCC (Master Carver’s Club), had a little wood-working desk set up.  A tourist trap or legitimate workstation?  By this point in the day I had grown very suspicious.  With David on my back I didn’t feel comfortable navigating the stairs so I wasn't able to see their handmade clocks.  We then went into the neighboring shop (name unknown) and were given a very thorough lesson from the owner on how to determine build quality.  While there I found a clock that I really liked.  It was a natural finished clock with hand carved trees and a hand painted clock face. It was also 800 Euro. We did not buy it as I was over ruled by the decision maker.

Tera went back next door to the MCC store and told me to go upstairs and tell her what I thought of those clocks.  So while she watched the kids, I carefully navigated the stairwell, so I wouldn't be buying multiple cuckoo clocks and looked around.  I saw two that I liked there as well (I called them the "man with pig" clocks). These were more affordable, so we went back as a family and spoke with Oli, the store owner. This is one of the clocks that I liked:

It was obvious that Oli had dealt with Americans for many, many years.  He was very abrupt in his questioning as he tried to determine what we really wanted and why we wanted it.  He was super helpful and funny.  One of the first points he taught us was that we, as foreigners, would have to believe him no matter what he said since there was no way for us to verify the truth anyways.  He took us upstairs where they kept the clocks that he and his five partners make and proceeded to give us an incredible lesson on what it takes to be considered “handmade” and what qualifies a clock as being an “authentic” Black Forest cuckoo clock.  So as not to drag this out too much longer, let's just say there is very little required.  We learned that about 90% of the cuckoo clocks in Triberg are factory-made outside of Germany but "assembled" in the Black Forest. We also learned that a company can legally advertise their clocks as "hand carved" if they add at least three original cuts into the wood. This requirement can easily be achieved by carving three small lines into the back or inside face of the clock where it is not seen. Very few clocks are actually hand carved any more.

That is the reason Oli and his friends went into business. They wanted to bring back the legacy of the truly hand-carved cuckoo clock. After his lesson, he got really busy with some other customers, so that gave Tera and me a chance to talk.

Since I have given Tera full decorating power in our house (she spends WAY more time there than I do these days), I told her the ultimate decision on which clock we got was on her.  I promised that I would fully support her no matter what she brought back.  So when Tera went back into the store and told Oliver which clock she wanted, he asked if I liked it too.  She told Oli that I was not fully behind her decision (a problem which he said he couldn’t help her with), but he did call me a good husband when he found out that it was my money she was using to pay for the clock.

I know it makes me sound weird, but hearing Oli’s reaction to Tera when she told him which clock she wanted actually made me feel better about her selection. He was genuinely surprised. It was so un-American. There were no figurines, no Edelweiss playing on the hour, every hour, no dancers, no plastic decorations anywhere.  She had  selected the same clock design that he has hanging in his house. It is a replica of an antique cuckoo clock. Luckily for us, Oli had our clock already boxed and ready to ship as an online customer had just ordered it.  He eased Tera’s concerns by saying they tell people to expect 4-6 weeks before shipping, so he'd have time to make a new one.  So without further ado, here is the clock.

The clock in the store:

Clock back at the vacation apartment:

The clock in our house: