Wuppertaler Uhrenmuseum

The Wuppertaler Uhrenmuseum stood in the cellar vaults of the Abeler family’s jewellery house on Poststraße in Wuppertal. It housed one of the largest private collections of clocks, with around two thousand pieces spread over more than three hundred square metres. The exhibits traced five thousand years of timekeeping, from Egyptian water clocks to the first European atomic clock of 1956. The collection included remarkable items such as a clock shaped like a wooden skull, a dolphin-form Stutzuhr, and a tiny watch concealed in a button. A specialist workshop restored many pieces so they ran again, while exact replicas were made for display. The museum also featured a world time clock beneath the building’s external clock tower, showing times in Honolulu, New York, Moscow, Ceylon and Tokyo alongside Central European Time. Outside on the façade, a mechanical clockwork played melodies at set hours, accompanied by figures of the time spirit Chronos and the Grim Reaper. Nearby, a three-wheeled clock built from a cart’s remains drew press attention, and a digital world population counter showed the ever-changing number of people on earth.