The collection comprised 300 years of cuckoo clock-making history, since the earliest examples made in the 18th to the 21st century.

It became apparent to them that an important part of European clock-making history was liable to disappear if surviving examples fell into irretrievable disrepair.

[2] Their guiding principles were to purchase objects of museum quality which held an important significance in the historical development of cuckoo timekeeping.

In Roman Piekarski's own words: When we started collecting in the 1970s no one wanted them because battery and electric clocks were all the rage.

Many of the pieces were rare and the collection contained some of the best examples of the cuckoo clockmaker’s art: One of the aims of the museum was to acquire, restore and preserve the clocks to be enjoyed by the future generations, as well as to contribute to the appreciation of the cuckoo clock in the history of horology.