ISDD Cuckoo Clock Black Forest house KA 876 EX

I received my clock 10 days ago; it was in perfect condition - nothing broken, chipped or missing. The craftsmanship is excellent - a real quality piece and the cuckoo sound is just what I expected. In the box is a DVD to help in setting up the clock, as well as some video showing clock varieties and how cuckoo clocks are constructed. The DVD is in PAL format, however, so if you do not have a player that can play PAL discs, it's pretty useless. It took me 2 days of adjusting the disc on the pendulum to get the clock to keep accurate time - it's now gaining no more than a few seconds a day. A few words about the placement of the clock on the wall: The video says put your nail in the wall about 6 1/2 feet from the floor and hang the clock on it. If you do that, the clock will run about 6 days before the weights hit the floor. I mounted mine about 7 feet from the floor. With the clock fully wound and the weights right at the bottom of the clock, I measured 69 inches from the bottom of the weights to the floor. The weights drop about 10 1/2 inches per day. Simple arithmetic tells you that the weights will reach the floor well before the clock has run 7 days. Even if you mount the clock higher on the wall, the ring at the other end of the chain will reach the bottom of the clock after 7 days and the clock will stop. So, to market this as an eight-day clock is totally misleading. All right, that was more than a few words, but you've been informed. Bottom line: you'll have to wind it more often than once every 7 days, but it's a beautiful clock and I still like it enough to give it 5 stars.

I have always wanted an authentic cuckoo clock since traveling through Germany and Austria many years ago. There are many knockoffs, usually mass produced with a crappy digital tone. This is the real deal, made in Germany with excellent craftsmanship. Be aware that as an authentic German Cuckoo Clock, it is 100% mechanical. There are no batteries and nothing digital about it. It works on a counterweight system and must be set about once a week. This is easy to do. Gently pull the chains downward while lifting the weights upward. Every half hour the door pops open to reveal the bird and the clock produces a warm, charming "cuckoo" sound. It is pleasant and not overly loud. A couple of things to be aware of: It does take a while to get the clock to keep accurate time. You adjust this by raising or lowering the pendulum bob, and we found you must move it in tiny increments to get it right. Once it is set though, you don't have to touch it again and it will keep accurate time. Also, I would suggest watching the online video to set up your clock. As an English speaker, I found the translated written instructions to be a bit unclear, particularly in the part where they tell you to pull out the tabs inside the clock and the picture shows the tabs still attached, leading me to assume you move them outward a bit. What it should say is to remove the tabs entirely, as explained in the video. (If you don't remove them, the "cuckoo" won't sound).

I bought this clock for me and my wife's anniversary. It is beautiful and we love it. When we received it, there were two pieces that fell off. I reattached them with glue. The accuracy needs to be adjusted by the pendulum and we're still working on getting that to be perfect. Sometimes it's running fast and sometimes slow. The chains for the counter weights are really long, so we made sure the wall we put it on was out of the way of traffic and the kids. Still a wonderful time piece and well worth the money.

I'm very dissatisfied with this timepiece. It is a beautiful clock and looks to be well built, however it sometimes goes for a week working perfectly and then out of nowhere just stops 2 to 3 times a day! Right now it has stopped twice today. The clock is level and out of any wind drafts. What bothers me is that it can work perfectly for a week or two and then just stops ticking. Very disappointed.

Very beautiful clock. The clock arrived with a couple parts broke off. Easily fixed with glue. We’ve been trying to get it to the right time but so far it’s off!

Excellent craftsmanship, got it for my wife’s birthday and our anniversary. Must say don’t get it if you’re expecting to simply take it out of the box, put it on the wall, and forget it. Getting the pendulum adjusted is tedious work and it’s not going to be quickly resolved. Even after a few weeks it’s still not perfect but it’s down to a minute or two a day which is easily correctable every time you reset the weights to keep it in sync with regular time. Out of the box despite saying it’s set at the factory it’s going to be way off, at least it was in my case. Was like 4 mins slow per hour, so initially the adjustments were significant then it got fast and you adjust down till it’s slow then back up, over and over till you reach something you’re okay with personally. I’m sure if I kept playing with the pendulum eventually through trial and error I’d get it to exactly one hour for every hour that passes but really all that work isn’t worth it to me. I will say be careful if you open any windows, a couple of times the pendulum has stopped if we have the front glass door open and a strong breezes comes through the hallway it’s in. Don’t think it’s damaging anything in the clock and all you got to do is get the pendulum swinging again and adjust the time to reflect the actual time. Overall very happy, it’s not as precise as a smartphone or quartz watch but it’s not suppose to be that precise. It’s a novelty item and it’s the chiming and the craftsmanship that is it’s appeal.