Two brothers with the world’s largest collection of cuckoo clocks are preparing to move their 750 timepieces back one hour this weekend—for daylight saving.
Roman Piekarski, 71, and Maz Piekarski, 69, have spent five decades sourcing their amazing pendulum-driven machines, on display at their “Cuckooland” museum in the UK.
And it takes the pair more than a day to ensure the clocks are accurately telling the right time when daylight saving regulations kick in twice each year.
The unmarried siblings’ remarkable hoard all comes from a 25-mile area in the Black Forest, Germany, where the vintage timepieces were first manufactured.
And among their revered collection is possibly the world’s most famous cuckoo clock, which was made for Frederick I, the Grand Duke of Barden, in the 1860s.
Mr. Roman Piekarski said visitors who come from all over the world to see his museum, in Tabley, near Knutsford, Cheshire, are often “gobsmacked” by what they find.
“We love what we do. Cuckoo clocks have been a way of life for us,” he said.
“We’ve been to Germany and different countries to buy clocks. We have had to hunt them down, and when you find them it’s great.
“When people leave us, they are absolutely gobsmacked. People just can’t believe what we’ve managed to put together.
“I have a joke—‘Never mind the Great Wall of China, we have the Great Wall of cuckoo clocks.’
“In our 35-year history, we have never had a disappointed visitor.”
