The Black Forest is known around the world as one of Germany's watchmaking centers, although it is not often or widely associated with cuckoo clocks. What should not be overlooked is that this scenic region on the border with France is home to two renowned German luxury watch manufacturers steeped in tradition. In this article, we introduce our readers to a watchmaking region that has changed with the times.
Clocks from the Black Forest – exported all over the world
Clockmaking had been an important regional industry in the Black Forest since the second half of the 18th century, and it retained its global significance well into the late 20th century. Until the 19th century, production was dominated by wooden models, a material also used for this purpose in many other rural regions of Central Europe. Interestingly, the deciding factors were not so much technical as legal.
While wooden clockmaking was a free trade that anyone could practice without special qualifications, the production of metal cases and movements was strictly regulated by guild rules and reserved exclusively for clockmakers in the towns. Abroad in particular, German clocks and Black Forest clocks were often even considered one and the same, and to this day Black Forest cuckoo clocks are as much a part of the international clichés about Germany as Bavarian lederhosen.
The story behind an impressive success
There is a remarkable background to why Black Forest clocks – above all cuckoo clocks – quickly became a successful product in demand worldwide. The reason often cited is that wood is cheaper and easier to work than metal. While this is true, it was not an exclusive advantage of the Black Forest clockmakers. In fact, all other makers of wooden clocks benefited from it just as much, regardless of where they lived.
What clearly set the Black Forest clock industry apart from its competitors in many other regions, however, was its early shift to a division of labor. Whereas a clockmaker had previously handled the complete production of a clock and all the individual parts it required, Black Forest clockmakers soon began relying on prefabricated parts sourced from specialized suppliers. Over time, more and more specialized workshops emerged offering components for timepieces, including frame makers, chain makers, dial turners, dial painters, and foundries producing gear blanks and bells.
As part of this specialization, new tools and machines were increasingly developed, laying the groundwork for the fast, low-cost series production of identical parts. As a result, the productivity of Black Forest clockmakers rose significantly. Whereas in the mid-18th century a clockmaker still needed a full week to make a single clock, some thirty years later he needed just one day.
The global market leader in wooden clocks is... the Black Forest!
Black Forest clock production always focused on affordable clocks such as floor clocks, wall clocks, and alarm clocks. Pocket watches and, later, wristwatches played a far smaller role in terms of numbers. Even in the second half of the 19th century, production mostly took place in small workshops in people's homes, with almost every workshop owner employing several journeymen and apprentices. Around 1840, there were some one thousand small clockmakers' houses between St. Georgen in the north and Neustadt in the south, in which about five thousand people were employed making timepieces. Annual output amounted to around 600,000 wooden clocks, which even then accounted for a large share of total world production. The low prices further strengthened this powerful market position.
During the 19th century, German clocks – in the form of Black Forest clocks with their brightly painted dials – were the most affordable models of their time. Besides its price and productivity advantages, the Black Forest clock industry owed its world-leading position above all to efficient distribution. Early on, it made use of the established sales channels and structures of the Black Forest glassmakers and founded corresponding trading companies.
Regional preferences were researched and promptly reflected in production. English customers, for example, mainly received the versions they preferred, with relatively plain lacquered dials and a date display. In France, on the other hand, models with colorful dials were particularly popular, while the Mediterranean countries favored wall clocks with black borders and motifs typical of the region, such as bullfighting scenes.
From the "Golden Years" to the quartz crisis
In the second half of the 19th century, structural change set in. The lacquered-dial wooden models that had sold so well until then increasingly failed to meet customers' expectations. Trade restrictions and tariff increases, along with growing dependence on wholesalers, made business even harder for Black Forest clockmakers. Around 1880, a rapid transition to industrial clock production took place.
Among the first "real" clock factories in the Black Forest were the companies Lenzkirch and L. Furtwängler Söhne. After development had until then been concentrated in the Baden part of the Black Forest, more and more companies set up in the Württemberg part from 1880 onward. In those years, Schwenningen and Schramberg in particular developed into global centers of clock production. Among the best-known companies of this era were the Hamburg-Amerikanische Uhrenfabrik, Kienzle, Mauthe, and Junghans. Instead of wooden clocks, alarm clocks with metal cases were now mass-produced industrially. Junghans was especially successful with the robust W10 alarm clock movement, developed in the early 1880s and produced in enormous numbers until the 1930s. This success was a key foundation for the company's rise to become, for a time, the largest clock factory in the world in the early 20th century. German clocks were once again a mass-market item in demand worldwide – only now they were metal alarm clocks rather than wooden clocks.
New products such as kitchen clocks with washable cases, or floor and wall clocks for the living room designed to match the furniture, rounded out the product range. The First World War brought the "Golden Years" of the Black Forest clock industry to an end. Some manufacturers managed to stay afloat by making time fuzes and other products for military use, while others had to give up during the crisis years after the war.
Even after the Second World War, the Black Forest clock industry was unable to recapture its former success.
The quartz crisis and the rise of plastic as a case material spelled the end for further manufacturers, some of them with a long tradition.
Junghans and Hanhart – heirs to a long watchmaking tradition
Among the companies that carry on the legacy of the Black Forest clockmakers to this day and have successfully weathered the crises are Junghans and Hanhart.
Junghans embraced quartz watches comparatively early, along with innovative solutions such as radio-controlled technology and solar power in wristwatches. The particularly successful design of many Junghans Masterpieces – in some cases, as with the designs by Max Bill, setting international standards – was another factor in its success. While Junghans is no longer the world's largest clock factory as it once was, it remains an internationally renowned and sought-after German watch brand.
Hanhart, now based in Gütenbach, was founded in Switzerland in 1882 by Johann Adolf Hanhart and relocated to Schwenningen twenty years later due to staff shortages. The company made its name above all with high-quality yet comparatively affordable stopwatches and chronographs.
During the Second World War, Hanhart's pilot and naval chronographs were prized for their precision and reliability. After 1945, Hanhart supplied the French Air Force and the Bundeswehr, among others. As a result of the quartz crisis, the company – at times the world market leader in mechanical stopwatches – had to be sold, but it recovered after refocusing on high-quality wristwatches.
And what about the cuckoo clocks?
Of course, the famous Black Forest cuckoo clocks still exist today, but overall they are less in demand than they used to be. Instead of enjoying the price advantage Black Forest wooden clocks once had, genuine cuckoo clocks from the region now have to hold their own on the world market as rather high-priced items against cheap copies. With SBS-Feintechnik in Schonach, formerly Josef Burger Söhne, the Black Forest is still home to one last company that produces mechanical movements for cuckoo clocks.
By the way: if you would like to learn more about the history of the Black Forest clock industry, we recommend the German Clock Museum (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum) in Furtwangen. It houses what is probably the largest collection of Black Forest clocks, from early wooden clocks and cuckoo clocks to modern quartz, radio-controlled, and solar watches. And if you have a little more time, you can visit numerous historic clockmaking sites in the Black Forest along the German Clock Route (Deutsche Uhrenstraße).
