I'll be in the Black Forest (Triberg) area of Germany around Oct.14th and would like to buy a cuckoo clock there. Can anyone help me on about how much they are...the best ones to buy...what to look for? <BR>Thank you to anyone that can help!

Most of the Cuckoo clocks in Germany are the carved wood animals. If you like the figures, water wheels, etc., that is more in Switzerland. Try Bucherer.com I ordered a great cuckoo clock, watch, etc.;& price, delivery, customer service was great.

I purchased by cuckoo clock in 1985 at the Uhren-Bazr Big Ben Hauptstrasse 71-73. At that time it is was 1058 DM but the exchange rate was 3.31 to 1 so it wasn't too bad. My daughter bought hers there in 93 and paid $400. The clocks are very nice and quality of music is much better than most. Our music bbox plays twice as long as the others. They do deliver.

Hi, Sue: You are going to a great area for clocks. All of the little souvenir stores will have clocks and you can have success there as well as buying other small items to ship home in the box with the clock. However, there are two huge clock stores around the area of Triberg. The name of one is House of a Thousand Clocks (in German on the sign, but with English subtitle!) and you will have a great selection. We took the chance to have ours shipped home and they arrived in perfect condition. Best of luck. Buy something you have never seen over here-we bought a huge clock with three bears carved on it. Plays two tunes, has beautiful sound. Be prepared to pay $100 for small clocks and up to $3000 for large ones. Happy Hunting!

<BR>Black forest is a great place, but check out the tourist clocks versus the nice clocks. On the nice clocks the inner workings are not plastic. On the outside look for shingles on the roofs and finished on the sides. Do not get shiny gold chains. They only tarnish with handling. Get chains that are dull finish. Look at the weights also. They have stamped weights and they have carved weights. You seldom see the carved weights over here. They are much better looking. Get a clock man that can show you the difference. The real good ones do not cost that much more than the cheap ones.

Sue: Everyone gave you some great ideas and I'd have to agree that you would want to choose a clock that is well made, regardless of how elaborate it is. <BR> <BR>The only other thing that comes to mind is the winding interval. I got one that you can wind once a week, which is more convenient than say, one that needs daily winding. <BR> <BR>Happy hunting!

Thanks for all the great ideas--I had no clue where to start and now I feel pretty knowlegable about them! Finding one that needs winding only once a week sounds like something I need to consider. Are these fairly new and possibly won't have as big of a selection then? <BR>

Sue: This clock "technology" has been around longer than you and I combined, I'm sure. No, it's just a matter of which clock is better than the other. <BR> <BR>I have a small to medium sized clock that I bought about 13 years ago and didn't pay more than $100.00. It works OK, but doesn't keep time as accurately as I'd like. The cuckoo is confused, I think as it was packed away for a couple of years and with the hands off of the clock, I need to determine the correct hour. One of these days... <BR> <BR>Lastly, folklore has it that if you don't bring back a cuckoo clock, then you are supposed to bring back a baby. <BR>

SUE, My wife and I bought a clock on our honeymoon 5 years ago. We did not want to get junky clock. The Black Forest has many tourist shops just for the American clock shopper "House of 10,000 clocks" etc,...We found a little family owned shop where you can buy one on display or as we did, have a custom clock built on your own ideas. We were able to choose the: roof style, look of the weights, the figurines, the music it played, the winding time (daily/weekly) and we told him what we wanted on the outside. We even got a tour of the workshop and saw his father-in-law carving a clock face. He made it for us and shipped it over a couple of months later. The cost I believe was about $350-400. If you are going to buy one, buy a good one that will last and that you can keep for years to come. He spoke very good english and takes credit cards. Enjoy He is just up the main road from Triburg, make a right at the fork at the top of the town if I remeber correctly. A small house type building. <BR>Robert Herr, Triberger Strasse #38, Schonach phone 07722 5274. <BR>

<BR>Thank you everyone for all the info!