Trumpet clocks have in common with ordinary cuckoo clocks only their mechanical time train. The music train is very large and robust in order to supply sufficient wind to the reed pipes to create a musical tune. This is opposed to a simple cuckoo type known by collectors as "blowers" of "German Buglers" that simply substitute a reed pipe for the two cuckoo whistles.

The business of creating horn type musical clocks first began in the Black Forest by Jacob Bauerle. His production of trumpet and flute clocks was very limited and few examples exist.

In the same era, about 1860, Emilian Wehrle began to produce trumpet clocks and continued to manufacture them until his death in 1869.