Modern Cuckoo

Since the mid 1700s, the cuckoo clock has been a pendulum-driven invention. It imitates the call of the cuckoo bird—which family of birds also includes the roadrunner—at the catharsis of a series of pipes, bellows, and a wire gong. More recently, and in the case of the Paolino & Fusi example, the clock is fueled by a quartz battery using a German-engineered cuckoo system, constructed out of ebonized or wenge wood. The Italians may have modernized it, but the background music keeps to its Black Forest roots. This is a kinder, more sensitive cuckoo: it only deigns to sing during the day. The cuckoo stays quiet at night.