HEAD -- Genève
An orange ball appears on the Fatbird's nose at the top of each hour, and the time is displayed on its body. The clock can also be synced with your schedule via an app to provide reminders.
HEAD -- Genève
Each cuckoo represents a different unit of time: the second, the minute and the hour. Each generates its own graphics when placed on the iPad screen, together representing the time.
HEAD -- Genève
Watch the Birdie takes one photo an hour, and one photo whenever someone passes by its lens. You can look at them in a slideshow, but be warned: they'll disappear as soon as you've viewed them.
HEAD -- Genève
Every 20 minutes, the Papagei Clock asks the time. The reply is the recorded and played back for all to hear.
HEAD -- Genève
Instead of playing a distinctive sound every 30 minutes, the CC Timer has ambient sounds representing different measurements of time (from seconds to one day) playing at all times.
HEAD -- Genève
Talk about a statement: the cuckoo clocks hides a bank safe, a reference to the ongoing debate around the Swiss banking industry.
HEAD -- Genève
The golden bird passes through the ring slowly, before whizzing through the open gap at the top of each hour.
HEAD -- Genève
While a traditional cuckoo clock hides only the bird, Nitzan Cohen's version obscures the clock face itself. Once an hour, the black circle rotates to reveal the time.
HEAD -- Genève
The solar-powered Coucou-Nest has a ball of birdseed on its pendulum to attract real birds, who can make their homes inside the clock itself.
HEAD -- Genève
The bird sings quietly throughout the day -- except on the half hour, when the chirping suddenly gets much louder.
HEAD -- Genève
The roll of paper will print evenly over the course of the year before running out, giving us a view both of how much time has passed and how much time remains.
HEAD -- Genève
Claudio Colucci's clock, inspired by Jules Verne, tells the time, but also gives details about holidays, seasons, astrological signs and seasons on overlapping discs.
HEAD -- Genève
Why have one cuckoo when you can have several? To figure out the time, count the number of birds peeking out. (A golden cuckoo pops out at the half hour.)
HEAD -- Genève
Clémentine Despocq's cuckoos have gone back to nature, abandoning their chalets for the simple comforts of the nest.
HEAD -- Genève
Instead of just marking the time, Coucou Time celebrates is. The device diffuses the scent of spring time plants, using essential oils from plants gathered early this April.
CNN  — 

Corny, kitschy, quaint. The humble cuckoo clock can be described a number of different ways, but cool certainly isn’t the first word that comes to mind.

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However, students at HEAD - Genève (Geneva University of Art and Design), one of Europe’s most prestigious design schools, have tried to change that by giving the 400-year-old folk object a makeover, reimagining it as a stylish contemporary design object in “24 Hours in the Life of a Swiss Cuckoo Clock.”

Since the designs were unveilved in 2015, the exhibition has popped up at Watches & Wonders 2015 in Hong Kong, the 2016 edition of Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva, and this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan.

Now the exhibition has landed at Dubai Watch Week.

The cuckoo gets chic

With the generous support of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, 18 students were tasked with the clock a contemporary makeover without sacrificing the cuckoo clock’s two signatures: a clear story and a way to mark the passing of time.

The resulting designs are as varied as they are inventive, involving iPads, cameras, ticker tape and, in one particularly conceptual case, a flask of essential oil.

Check out the gallery above for the most unique cuckoo clocks.

“24 Hours in the Life of a Swiss Cuckoo Clock” in on at the Dubai Mall until Nov. 29, 2016.