The Clock Museum, housed in a handsome 19th-century merchant's house in the city centre, holds one of Romania's most unusual and rewarding collections. Over 1,200 timepieces from the 16th to the 20th century fill the rooms: carriage clocks, longcase clocks, musical clocks, mantel clocks, pocket watches, and elaborate astronomical instruments from across Europe. The presentation is dense and old-fashioned in the best possible way.
Highlights include a 17th-century German clock with automata figures, several exquisite French Empire clocks, and a collection of Viennese Biedermeier regulators. The building itself is worth the visit: a well-preserved example of the prosperous Romanian merchant architecture of the 1890s, with original tiled floors and painted ceilings. The museum is small enough to do in an hour but detailed enough to fill two. It sits on Nicolae Iorga Street in the city centre and is open Tuesday to Sunday.