[1] Elaborate large-scale musical clocks with automatons are often installed in public places and are widespread in Japan.
One of the earliest known domestic musical clocks was constructed by Nicholas Vallin in 1598, and it currently resides in the British Museum in London.
[2] The music on mechanical clocks is typically played from a spiked cylinder on bells, organ pipes, or bellows.
[4] In Japan, aside from the extensive popularity of large-scale musical clocks installed in public facilities, electronic musical wall clocks has become a popular novelty items since the late 1990s.
They are mostly collected for their aesthetic and decorative values, especially those with elaborate movements and advanced music generation.