Clock information // Troubleshooting and Infos

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How to get help quickly

If a problem occurs, you should first contact the store that sold you the clock. If this is not possible you can also contact the manufacturer in Germany. Usually you have one to two years warranty on the clock, so in most cases the store or manufacturer will pay for repair or replacement, excluding shipping costs.

With modern cuckoo clocks, you can easily find the manufacturer’s name by opening the back of the clock and looking on the label or stamp inside. The name of the manufacturer is usually engraved on the movement.

If you live in the U.S. and have a problem with a Dold clock, contact Jensen’s Black Forest Clocks (phone +1 209-296-4255, email: clocks@volcano.net).

Unwrapping of your cuckoo clock

If you have received a brand new cuckoo clock, please read the instructions first before unpacking it.

The most important thing is: After you have removed the small bag under the clock which contains the chains, you must not turn the watch upside down under any circumstances, otherwise the chains may jump off the gears.

To ship a clock to the service station, pull on the chains until the hooks are all the way to the box. Put a piece of wire or thread through all the chains; as close to the box as possible. Roll up the chains in a piece of aluminum foil and fix the bundle with tape, thread or rubber. This prevents the chains from jumping off the sprockets and getting caught in the movement.

Insert a piece of paper into the spring on the back of the box lid. Pack the clock in a not too big cardboard box and stuff it with newspaper (do not use styrofoam flakes!). Then wrap the pendulum, label it and pack it with the clock. Do not ship the weights. If there are any numbers on the weights (275 or 320 etc.), write them on a piece of paper, along with your name, address, phone number, email address and a description of your problem and seal the package.

Please do not ask if a cuckoo clock store can send you spare parts if you did not buy the clock there. There are too many different watches, which require different spare parts. A normal clock store will not be able to help you withv a cuckoo clock.

Instead, you should visit a specialized clock repair store like www.timesavers.com.

1. have the clamps in the clock been removed as described in the instructions?

2. has the cuckoo door been unlocked? You need to turn a small hook on the side, which protected the watch during shipping.

3. please check the position of the night shutdown. Often the night shutdown is activated, then the cuckoo and the music will not work. On some lockcs it is located on the left side of the watch in the form of a switch, on some types it is a hook under the clock. Check both positions of the night shut-off and make sure that the switch/hook is not in between ON and OFF.

If one of the weights slips to the ground immediately, the chain has jumped off the gear. To repair this is not easy and requires a lot of patience.

To fix this, pull the remaining chains all the way up and unhook the weights. Lock the other chains by pulling a piece of wire through them. Make sure you do this as close to the housing as possible. This is very important, otherwise the other chains will also jump off the sprockets.

The pendulum controls how fast your clock runs. If your clock is running too fast you can correct this by moving the pendulum blade down a little. If your clock is running too slow, move it up. This should also be described in the instructions that came with your clock.

Keep in mind that moving the pendulum blade three millimeters is equivalent to moving the time three minutes in 24 hours.

Please make sure that the clock is hanging straight on the wall. The clock must be placed in an exact vertical position so that the pendulum can swing freely.

You need to “listen to the clock” to see if it has a regular tick-tock rhythm. Align your watch not with your eyes but with your ears. You do this by moving the clock to the right and left until it has a regular tick-tock rhythm.

In this case, it is not the cuckoo that is on the wrong position, but the minute hand is in the wrong position.

To set the hand correctly, loosen the hand nut and set the minute hand to the full hour and tighten the hand nut again.

In this case, too, it is not the cuckoo that is wrong, but the hour hand is in the wrong position.

To set the hand correctly, gently pull the hand towards yourself on its stem. Then set the minute hand to the full hour. Depending on how often the clock strikes, set the hour hand and then push it back to the original position.

Caution: If your clock has wooden hands, you may need to lock the hand in position with some glue after correcting. Do not use too much glue for this!

When you open the back of the clock, you will see a thin wire leading from the bottom of the clock to the cuckoo. This wire is to move the cuckoo while he calls. It is not connected to the cuckoo, but it usually ends at the cuckoo’s tail.

During shipping, the wire may get too close the cuckoo. If this is the case, the wire blocks the cuckoo and the door.

To fix this, you can simply run the wire carefully around the cuckoo so that it is eventually back under the tail of the cuckoo. This is quite simple, if you open the little door for this purpose, because the cuckoo then moves forward.

Pl.19.1: When the pendulum is moved by 1mm (up or down), the clock advances or retards by 2.5 min.

Pl.23.5: When the pendulum is moved by 1mm (up or down), the clock advances or retards by 2 min.

Pl.28.5: When the pendulum is shifted by 1mm (up or down), the clock advances or retards by 1.5 min.