About Us

In 1977 I worked for a large heating and air conditioning company that re-located my family from the San Francisco Bay Area to San Diego.  After moving, my wife went house hunting and found a house she loved in the Miramar area.  When she took me to look at it, I too liked it.  Upon entering the kitchen, I saw a huge cuckoo clock on the wall.  It was the largest cuckoo clock I had ever seen.  I had never owned a cuckoo clock before. 

We bought the house anyway. 

After we settled into our home, we had a small party with a few of our friends, including our real estate saleslady and her husband.  When they arrived, she handed me a paper shopping bag with a red ribbon tied to the handles.  I opened the bag and inside was an old broken apart cuckoo cottage, along with a very dirty movement, torn cuckoo bellows and several other related parts.  A few days later, curiosity hit me and I started fiddling with the parts.  I tried various methods of attempting to clean the movement and was able to get it fairly clean.  I built a small stand and mounted the movement to it. 

Since the chains were in  pieces, I patched them together and put them on the clock.  I had only one weight so I used half of a scuba divers belt weight for the other.  I studied the movement as it began ticking and watched the mechanical process involved in how a cuckoo clock worked.  One of the bellow tops was still in tact, although torn it gave me a basic pattern to fold two new paper tops for my clock.  Since I had no idea of where to buy parts for it, (I never thought of going to a clock shop) I had to improvise on things such as the cuckoo lift wires, etc. 

After I assembled the clock and made some adjustments, it actually worked!!!  Feeling proud of myself, I began going to garage and rummage sales in search of cuckoos.  I was able to find a few clocks to experiment on.  Still with no idea of where to buy parts since the internet was not available to me.  I went to our library to see if there were any books on cuckoo clock repair.  Needless to say, I found none.  But the librarian did give me a good idea.  She directed me to a corner where there was an 1-800 Phone Directory with Yellow Pages.  I was able to find several places that offered parts for sale.  I copied down phone numbers and called to order catalogs. 

One thing led to another and I soon found myself taking a mail order basic cuckoo clock repair course.  I also ordered repair books on both cuckoo and other clocks. By 1981 I had a small business going and doing well enough that all my spare time was involved in clock repair.

In 1993 my company asked me to re-locate to Iowa to help start a new branch for them.  My wife is from Vermont and she was happy to move closer to home along with being able to live in a 4 season climate again.  After getting our new office going, I started our cuckoo business here in Iowa.  I used local newspaper to advertise our company and its services. 

Business was very good and in 1998 I had to make a decision about dedicating full-time to the cuckoo clock business.  We had clocks all over the house.  My wife was constantly complaining about not being able to use her dining room table, along with "all the racket" the clocks made. 

We built a small shop that is used now in full time cuckoo clock repair and restoration.  Locally we have a great customer base.  We also do work for several antique shops in Central Iowa. 

Cuckoo clocks always have been and always will be our passion.  Absolutely no clock will leave our shop until it passes our testing and scrutiny.