Automated Clock in the Form of a Dromedary Southern Germany, early 17th century, with later movement Gilt brass, gilt copper, brass, iron, silver, and ebony-veneered wood base Mythic and exotic animals were often the subject of the automated figure clocks popular throughout Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The European aristocracy enthusiastically commissioned mechanical versions of the wondrous birds and beasts of Arabia and the Orient, either to present as gifts or to keep for their own amusement as status symbols. It is unlikely that the movement in this camel's body was ever equipped with an hour-striking mechanism. Instead, a linkage inside the right front leg unlocked a spring-driven music box, allowing it to play a predetermined program every hour or perhaps every third hour. The camel's tail, which is not surely fastened to its rump, may have swung from side to side.