The Association – Verein die Schwarzwalduhr (VdS)

Was founded in 1987 as Förderverein Schwarzwalduhr e.V. and brought manufacturers, suppliers, dealers and collectors into a common organization whose goal is not only communication and exchange among themselves but also the geographical protection of the origin of the Black Forest Clock and protection of the registered collective trademark “Black Forest Cuckoo Clock”.

The VdS certificate stands for authenticity, origin and also the quality of the original Black Forest cuckoo clock. This certificate identifies all original Black Forest clocks that are exclusively mechanical and manufactured only in the Black Forest.

Most cuckoo clocks are sold overseas (we are talking about a hundred thousand clocks per year) and the customers there have to be sure that their cuckoo clock really comes from the Black Forest – this is what the VdS certificate stands for.

As of 2023, the VdS has a total of 52 members, including 13 manufacturers, 6 suppliers and 33 dealers and collectors of Black Forest clocks.

Excerpt from the VdS statutes:

• The product “The Black Forest Cuckoo Clock” is made in the Black Forest.
• Clock cases and carvings, facade cladding, transom windows, bay windows, balconies, shingles are usually and preferably made of wood.
• The clock has a mechanical movement. Also for other clock parts, which are directly related to the typical functions of the cuckoo clock, such as cuckoo call, moving figures, etc., only those articles, components and ornamental pieces are used, whose production in the Black Forest is technically possible and economically reasonable.
• This principle applies equally to clock cases, carvings, dials, hands, weights, whistles, sound springs, gongs and other fittings of the clocks.
• As far as parts are no longer manufactured in the Black Forest, they can also be sourced from outside the region.

• 01.1987 Foundation of the “Förderverein Schwarzwaldur e.V.”.
  • Chairman and founder: Peter Paul Masberg
  • Members: manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, collectors, etc.
• December 1989 Death of Mr. Masberg
• January 1990 – Chairman: Hubert Gasche
• January 2001 – Chairman: Ingolf Haas
• 2004 – Election of the clock of the year in the local history museum Triberg for the first time in public
• 01.2005 – Renaming: “VdS-Verein die Schwarzwalduhr e.V.”.
• 10.2006 – Registration of collective word mark “The Black Forest Cuckoo Clock
• 01.2012 – Registration of a word/figurative mark
• August 2022 – Chairman: Jürgen Clute