The Cuckoo Clock is a clock that has a carved wooden cuckoo bird that cuckoos for the clocks normal chiming function. The cuckooing is done by 2 belows sending air through pipes, in the same manner as an organ does. The cuckoo bird usually flaps its wings and moves its beak when cuckooing. The cuckoo clock is typically highly decorated and carved from wood, depicting a scene typical of its origons.

The cuckoo clock originates from the Black Forest region in Germany. The first cuckoo clock is generally accredited to Franz Anton Ketterer sometime in the 1730's. The clock making industry, as a hobby industry, had already started by this time amongst the Hauslers (The younger siblings of farmers who only received a small patch of land to farm) as a way to earn extra income during the long winter months of being snowed in. The making of cuckoo clocks quickly become popular in the Black Forest region (and still is today), and now the cuckoo clock is heavily associated with the Black Forest.

The skill of wood carving and decorating of the cuckoo clocks quickly made the cuckoo clocks very popular. The original clocks also came to be associated with the peddlars, who during the summer months would load the cuckoo clocks into their rucksacks and cycle all over Europe selling them. Although originally mechanical clocks, some clocks now have quartz movements, but the cuckoo clock is really unique due to the ornately carved wooden decorations and the cuckoo bird itself.