Two brothers with the world’s largest collection of cuckoo clocks are preparing to move their 750 timepieces back one hour this weekend - for daylight saving.
Roman Piekarski, 71 and Maz Piekarski, 69, have spent five decades sourcing their amazing pendulum-driven machines, on display at their 'Cuckooland' museum.
And it takes the pair more than a day to ensure the clocks are accurately telling the right time when daylight saving regulations kick in twice each year.
The unmarried siblings’ remarkable hoard all come from a 25-mile area in the Black Forest, Germany, where the vintage timepieces were first manufactured.
And among their revered collection is possibly the world’s most famous cuckoo clock, which was made for Frederick I, the Grand Duke of Barden, in the 1860s.
Roman said visitors who come from all over the world to see his museum, in Tabley, near Knutsford, Cheshire, are often ‘gobsmacked’ by what they find.
He said: “We love what we do. Cuckoo clocks have been a way of life for us. We work every day – Christmas is just another day.
“We’ve been to Germany and different countries to buy clocks. We have had to hunt them down and when you find them it’s great.
“When people leave us, they are absolutely gobsmacked. People just can’t believe what we’ve managed to put together.
“I have a joke – ‘Never mind the Great Wall of China, we have the Great Wall of cuckoo clocks’.
“In our 35-year history, we have never had a disappointed visitor.”
Roman Piekarski, 71 and Maz Piekarski, 69, have spent five decades sourcing their amazing pendulum-driven machines, on display at their 'Cuckooland' museum.
And it takes the pair more than a day to ensure the clocks are accurately telling the right time when daylight saving regulations kick in twice each year.
The unmarried siblings’ remarkable hoard all come from a 25-mile area in the Black Forest, Germany, where the vintage timepieces were first manufactured.
And among their revered collection is possibly the world’s most famous cuckoo clock, which was made for Frederick I, the Grand Duke of Barden, in the 1860s.
Roman said visitors who come from all over the world to see his museum, in Tabley, near Knutsford, Cheshire, are often ‘gobsmacked’ by what they find.
He said: “We love what we do. Cuckoo clocks have been a way of life for us. We work every day – Christmas is just another day.
“We’ve been to Germany and different countries to buy clocks. We have had to hunt them down and when you find them it’s great.
“When people leave us, they are absolutely gobsmacked. People just can’t believe what we’ve managed to put together.
“I have a joke – ‘Never mind the Great Wall of China, we have the Great Wall of cuckoo clocks’.
“In our 35-year history, we have never had a disappointed visitor.”
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FunTranscript
00:00 Welcome to Kupuland. In Kupuland we house the world's largest collection of antique
00:09 kukukoks, over 700 in our collection. There's no other museum registered in the world for
00:18 kukukoks except for us. This time of the year is not very good for Kupuland because on Saturday
00:29 night the clock goes back on and it will take us so long to do the job it's just incredible
00:39 because each clock would have to be done, each one at a time and if we get disturbed
00:46 then we have to start again. Bumps is a job that we've done for years and years and to
00:55 the end of the day we enjoy it. The Kupulok museum is owned by my brother and myself.
01:02 We don't have anybody to lead the collection to. We're both getting a bit old now so we
01:09 are looking for a body that could take Kupuland on, hopefully keep it together for all time
01:17 but we still haven't got the time to teach people and we don't care where we have to
01:23 do it so that they'll know how to maintain, look after, give guidance to us, whatever
01:32 is necessary.
01:33 [Music]