Six iconic clocks that rock and stand the test of time

Thrashing around for the phone doesn’t always save time in a busy household. What about something timeless for your floor, wall or bedside table?

Clockwise from left, the Karlsson Cuckoo Clock, suppliers include Meadows & Byrne; Newgate Clocks of England offers LCD alarm clocks; the Nelson Ball Clock, Vitra.

Cuckoo clocks

With their tipping, over-excited little bird whooping out the hours, cuckoo clocks have been around since the 1630s, when the craze for automatons to entertain the gentry began. 

Created in many genres, the clock cases we most associate with this chirping mechanism were crafted in the Black Forest of Germany from the mid-1800s, and beloved of the Victorians. Carved in woodsy themes like twisted branches, leafy chalet roofs and wild animal figures (Jadgstuck or hunting style), their pendulum and pine-cone weights pulled the clocks along between windings. 

Today, flocks of these animated clocks survive in several interesting, less fussy examples, and children and adults continue to love them. Some cuckoo devices come with a handy light sensor that silences the birdie after dark. 

Karlsson Cuckoo Clock, with a garden bird trill, €99, suppliers include Meadows & Byrne.

My choice would be a simple birdhouse in colourful aluminium and ABS plastic housing by Karlsson in a moulded chalet form. With more of a bird chirp rather than a cuckoo call, the quartz mechanism is run by AA batteries and can be set to quiet at night. 

Choose your little bird from a large range of single colours; €99, Meadows & Byrne. 

Karlsson has a fascinating collection of clocks and also offers its cuckoo clock as a table/alarm clock; €43, thelittlegreenbag.ie. Varieties of these new birds are also out there from Guzzini and Fisura.

Mora clocks

Having been drawn into Henning Mankell’s Wallander on RTÉ Player, a detective drama set in the southern Swedish province of Skåne, I was reminded of the beauty of a commonplace inclusion in many Scandinavian houses — the longcase Mora clock. From the 17th century, struggling carpenters made these clock cases to supplement their income, and they have a distinctly feminine, soft and hippy rococo curve that’s weighted towards the base. 

The rustic Mora longcase clock is a staple of Scandinavian country-house decorating. File picture

Varieties of these period Gustavian beauties are available in old originals with a clock mechanism, or new handmade pieces with quartz mechanisms. Prices from Mora Clocks (based in the UK) range from €650 for a reproduction and €2500 for a vintage piece with pendulum, weights and chimes (180cm to 240cm high), moraclock.com. 

Keep an eye on the antique auction circuit, Panomo.eu and Etsy too.

Nelson’s ball clock

Jumping forward in time, George Nelson’s ball clock, designed for the Howard Miller Clock Company, was launched into our spaces in 1949. It still rocks the 1950s Atomic look and continues to delight decorators with its explosive space-age energy. 

Nelson (1908-1986) designed dozens of clocks for sideboards and walls, and his ball clock with its sculptural metal rods marking out the hours, finished in a wooden ball, came in a choice of colourways. 

The Nelson Ball Clock. With serious design bounce, this clock has remained an affordable mid-century icon for over 75 years, €345, Vitra.

Other models to explore by Nelson’s studio in collaboration with Herman Miller, touched by the genius of Irving Harper and Isamu Noguchi, include the Flock of Butterflies, Star, Sunburst, Spindle, Asterisk, Turbine, and the all-seeing Eye clock. 

Make time for 1stDibs to search for original pieces. Configure a brand-new ball clock with original bounce in your choice of colours from €345, Vitra.com.

Flip clocks

Flip clocks or flipo-clocks were a strange mechanical moment for graphic clocks before LCD screen features lit up our nightstands. With a modern steam-punk wonder to their workings, they delivered the time like a desk calendar, flipping over a stack of numerals in two piles of plates to count out 24 hours. 

Leff of Amsterdam Brick Flip clock. Secondhand examples from €250. Suppliers including Robert Jagers, FlipOClock, Ballydehob, Cork.

The name most closely associated with mid-century flip-clocks is Copal (models 101 and 201). Some collectors spend considerable money and endless hours repairing these increasingly rare models; see Flipclockfans.com. 

There’s also a specialist repair service from restorer Robert Jagers at FlipoClock, in Ballydehob, Co Cork, from €150 per timepiece (parts and shipping not included) Flipoclock.com. 

Robert also stocks working vintage flip clocks, and he’s one half of the much-loved vintage shop Hunter Gatherers Vintage curated with his wife Steffie in Skibbereen, Huntersgatherersvintage.com.

Wall clocks

Now you can pick up a budget wall clock that’s accurate and eye-catching for less than €50 at Jysk. 

For something with fascinating design credentials, my pick is the AJ Bankers call clock, designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1971 for the National Bank of Denmark. It’s one of those pieces in a modest size, which ticked over into domestic use from a commercial setting.

Executive elegance, the AJ Bank clock c.1971 conjured by Danish architect Arne Jacobsen, now faithfully reproduced by Rosendahl Design Group, €254, Finnish Design Shop.

It’s timeless industrial styling at its very best from the mid-century era of “total design”, where an architect would place every detail in a building. Produced today by the Rosendahl Design Group, it gives you something that’s seconds away from the original. 

In glass and aluminium with a red detail to the hands over a black or white face, it features a fascinating grid of 12 squares, each of which is filled out to indicate the numerals; €254, finnishdesignshop.com. 

If you’re looking for a Danish clock with a more pared-back aesthetic, go for the Henning Koppel wall clock from Georg Jensen (c.1978) with its receding dot and dash face in a choice of colours; from €211. 

Rotbluta from Ikea is superbly priced in a simple, white, classic wall clock belted in ash veneer, €40, Ikea.com/ie.

Newgate clocks

Britain has a long history of clock-making, and many of us grew up with a Smiths clock from Enfield running down the last moments of dawn before falling onto the shag rug in preparation for school. For something quirky and retro, Newgate Clocks is another great design brand to make time for; its inexpensive LCD clocks are my favourite for an affordable, fun buy. 

Newgate Clocks of England offers some quirky and delightful timepieces to stoke any Boomer's nostalgia; LCD alarm clocks from €35.

The Newgate Spectronoma LCD clock in black is like a small factory of time and motion — it’s busy, digital, and colourful with three screens in white, red and green incorporating a 12- or 24-hour time display, a digital alarm, snooze function and temperature display, €55.

If you prefer something lower slung, try out the Futurama LCD clock in black and white with its moon-phase and alarm screen adding up to five-screen madness adored by a generation sprinting away from analogue life in the 1970s. Check out Newgateworld.eu.