With the decision to introduce a certificate of authenticity, a long-held wish of Ingolf Haas, the company’s long-time president, came true: “We have to be able to guarantee our collectors and customers that the watches they have bought definitely come from this region.” With these words he formulates an essential basic feature, which is guaranteed by the VdS certificate.

Black Forest clocks that are allowed to carry this certificate must meet a high standard. One requirement, for example, is that the clock is made exclusively only in the Black Forest. But the proof of origin alone is not enough to obtain the certificate. The clock must also still be exclusively mechanical and the individual parts must also have been manufactured in the Black Forest. There is no way to get the coveted certificate for a quartz watch, or a solar powered watch.

Ingolf Haas: “Our customers want a mechanical clock and that is what makes our clocks stand out.” Watchmakers from the Triberg and Titisee-Neustadt area who achieve this quality standard can acquire this certificate and add it to their product. By the way – the certificate was designed by the artist Benno Gasche from Schonach. To show the internationality it is bilingual in German and English.

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.