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Swiss Cuckoo Clocks

A HEAD – Genève project carried out by students will be presented at the Musée des arts et métiers in Paris from 20 to 25 May, during the D’Days.

The mechanism and decoration of cuckoo clocks are emblematic of the precise and meticulous work associated with the image of Switzerland.

Originally, they evoked the pleasing simplicity of an idealised rural life in an Alpine setting, protected from the vicissitudes of progress.

Under the direction of the designer Claudio Colucci, students of HEAD – Genève, Geneva University of Art and Design, decided to reinterpret the cuckoo clock, giving a new contemporary take on it while following an underlying principle: to uphold the necessary high standards of the traditional cuckoo clock and to tell the hours with a repeated song.

Sémaphore, Wendy Gaze, HEAD – Genève, Sandra Pointet — Top: Peeping Clock, Solkin Keizer, © HEAD – Genève, Sandra Pointet. Above: Sémaphore, Wendy Gaze, © HEAD – Genève, Sandra Pointet

It’s no longer an idealised world that is portrayed in the 21st century cuckoo clocks that the students have designed. Instead, they articulate current concerns, while retaining the playful and mischievous note characteristic of this custodian of time.