I conducted, on the afternoon of Thursday, January 15, 2026, this
publication's thirty-third consecutive quarterly inventory of the
cuckoo clocks on publicly visible display in downtown Helen, Georgia.
The inventory has been conducted, since March 2019, on the third
Thursday of each calendar quarter, between the hours of 1:00 p.m.
and 4:00 p.m. local time, by myself, on foot, using a numbered
clipboard. It is, I should note, the only inventory of its kind
conducted, to this publication's knowledge, anywhere in the
continental United States.
The method is walking.
I begin, by convention, at the northwest corner of Robertstown Road
and Bruckenstrasse, facing east. I proceed east along Bruckenstrasse
to Main Street, documenting every visible clock. I turn south on
Main Street, walk to Edelweiss Strasse, turn west, walk to
Robertstown Road, turn north, and walk back to my starting point.
This closes the loop. I then, at a second pass, enter each of the
seven primary retail establishments along the loop (Heinrich's
Cuckoo Emporium, Die Alte Uhrenhaus, Kellner & Sons Timepieces, the
Helen Christmas Shop, Hansel & Gretel's Fudge Shoppe, Kuhn's Dirndl-
Emporium, and the Helen Welcome Center) to count clocks visible only
from inside the establishment.
I do not count clocks I cannot see.
The count, by location
Heinrich's Cuckoo Emporium (1204 Bruckenstrasse): 62 clocks (South-
facing display window: 14. North-facing display window: 18. Interior
wall, visible through front door: 30.) Q4 2025 count: 66. Change:
-4.
Die Alte Uhrenhaus (1106 Main Street): 84 clocks (Front window: 22.
Interior wall, visible through front door: 62.) Q4 2025 count: 84.
Change: 0.
Kellner & Sons Timepieces (522 Edelweiss Strasse): 27 clocks (All
on display behind counter, visible through front window and open
door.) Q4 2025 count: 27. Change: 0.
Helen Christmas Shop (1140 Bruckenstrasse): 41 clocks (Two wall
displays and a central rotating kiosk.) Q4 2025 count: 38. Change:
+3.
Hansel & Gretel's Fudge Shoppe (1138 Bruckenstrasse): 1 clock
(The south-wall clock photographed by NASA astronaut Jeremy Hansen
during the crew's twelve-minute walkabout on April 14, per this
publication's April 18 report. Not present in January 2026, as the
incident has not yet occurred.) Q4 2025 count: 1. Change: 0.
Kuhn's Dirndl-Emporium (1036 Main Street): 3 clocks. Q4 2025
count: 3. Change: 0.
Helen Welcome Center (200 Bruckenstrasse): 2 clocks. Q4 2025
count: 2. Change: 0.
Exterior-mounted and architectural clocks (not in any
establishment): 54 clocks (All four-sided façade clocks mounted on
various Main Street and Bruckenstrasse façades, plus the three
Alpine Apothecary architectural clocks.) Q4 2025 count: 54. Change:
0.
Downtown total, January 15, 2026: 274 clocks.
Historical context
Per this publication's inventory archives (which I maintain at my
home office, in a three-ring binder titled "DOWNTOWN HELEN CUCKOO-
CLOCK INVENTORY, 2019-present"), the Q1 2026 count of 274 is the
second-highest count recorded since March 2019. The highest was
279, recorded in October 2024 (the peak of the 2024 Oktoberfest
retail-volume cycle). The lowest was 198, recorded in April 2020,
during the first spring of the COVID pandemic, when Heinrich's
Cuckoo Emporium had, temporarily, transferred a large portion of
its display stock to a secondary warehouse in Cleveland.
The current Q1 count of 274 is, the publication's editorial board
may wish to note, four higher than the ten-year average (270.2) for
the third Thursday of January.
A note on the Glockenspiel
The inventory, by my longstanding methodological choice, excludes
the Helen Downtown Glockenspiel, which is a different class of
instrument (a tower clock rather than a cuckoo-clock guide">cuckoo clock), despite its
being the single most historically significant publicly-displayed
timepiece in the downtown core. Readers who wish to include the
Glockenspiel in the total should add 1 to the figure.
The Glockenspiel, as of Thursday afternoon, was in running condition.
The inventory will resume on Thursday, April 16, 2026.
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