While the sound of 85 clocks ticking in unison might be irritating to some, Jeff Campbell doesn’t even notice it unless he hones in on it.

Campbell has been fixing clocks professionally since 2006, and over the years has collected 85 clocks of all shapes, sizes and eras. While keeping them all running in unison is its own time consuming task, Campbell, who works out of his home in Seven Fields, said the work proves its worth every quarter hour.

“The ticking is very relaxing. You get so used to something you don't even hear it anymore,” he said. “I have five grandfather clocks, too; they are all running. The ringing on the quarter hour can be interesting.”

One of the only feelings that surpasses what Campbell experiences from looking at interesting clocks is the satisfaction he sees in the eyes of clients when he fixes what is often a family heirloom that has stopped keeping time. Campbell understands the emotions clocks can bring, because he was originally taught about them by his grandfather, a fellow clock maker.

Clocks are often passed down from generation to generation and Campbell has a backlog of requests to fix them with clients needing to book almost a month ahead. His job, he said, is still necessary.

“People have these pieces and they are family heirlooms, and it is so rewarding to see their face when they see it running,” Campbell said. “I have seen tears in people's eyes many a time when they hear their clock ring. You can't buy that feeling.”

While the technology is relatively new compared to clocks, micrographics technology saw its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. Still, though, John Jordan, a field service technician with the Pittsburgh branch of Compucom, has stayed busy with calls to repair microfilm and scanning machines since he started his job in 1991.

In more recent years, Jordan has been helping to prepare a lot of old technology to convert film and images to digital formats, in addition to his regular maintenance work on the machines.

“Most of it is going toward book scanners and digital scanners that are hooked to PCs,” Jordan said. “There is still a lot of microfilm out there; a lot of it is starting to get converted.”

According to Jordan, microfilm was once the main form of archiving, and many companies in the 1980s made machines that converted paper and images to film stock and could view it.

While a lot of film is now being converted to digital formats, Jordan said many companies and some individuals hang on to microfilm as backup.

“When you get microfilm it is what it is. You can get a lot of images put on a roll of film; 2,000 images on one roll,” he said. “It stays the same for a long time. You can appreciate that you don't have to worry about the machine really crashing.”

Campbell said some people have an appreciation for old-fashioned clocks for a similar reason that people appreciate microfilm. They are physical machines that operate with parts that can be fixed by hand.

Looking at the inside of a clock to find a problem is Campbell’s craft.

“Clocks are powered by gears and weights, others are powered by springs,” Campbell said. “I like the ones that have a problem because then you have to investigate, you have to explore to find the problem.”

Fixing film machines including cameras also involves digging through their insides, Jordan said.

“It can be anything from paper jams to broken gears, belts, anything physical,” Jordan said. “There are some issues that take problem solving, you might have an issue with a missing part of a print. Then you've got to figure out why that part is missing. You have to troubleshoot to figure out what is missing.”

Jordan and Campbell both travel to locations to fix some machines, in part, because of their large sizes.

Campbell said there used to be schools and classes that would teach people how to make and fix clocks, but he learned the skill by being somewhat of an apprentice to his grandfather.

He also gained experience through mentoring from other horologists, or those who study time and make clocks and watches.

“He worked on grandfather clocks, wall clocks and mantle clocks,” Campbell said of his grandfather. “Mentoring is just sitting beside people who were long-term horologists.

“It wasn't my intent to really do it, it grew organically.”

Conversely, Jordan attended the Pennsylvania Technical Institute in Pittsburgh, where he picked up the repairing skills.

“I had no knowledge of micrographics at the time, and they had me put back together a machine they had,” Jordan said. “Basically, there is a film cartridge in it, and you put a paper through and hit the switch and it opens the shutter, it exposes light and prints onto film. It was a film camera.”

Jordan said he has attended classes over the years that taught him more digital-based skills in order to stay relevant in the microfilm industry, because, as he said, the technology is still evolving.

The changing technology has led to there being fewer replacement pieces for machines that have mechanical issues.

“Parts are still available, but as time goes on, they are increasingly hard to get because of the machines,” Jordan said. “In the ‘80s, there were multiple manufacturers of microfilm equipment. There was a lot more diversity than the product lines.”

Meanwhile, the future of clock making and repairing is good, because machine pieces are still being made, and Campbell even creates many on his own.

“We make our own tools we need to fix a clock,” Campbell said. "I have mills so if I need a gear I can make it, and that goes alongside the massive amount of parts I already have. The time keeping tech has not changed.”

The oldest clocks Campbell has fixed to tell time date back to the 1700s. He said anything older than that is usually just a display piece.

Jordan said he services a lot of machines that have been around since the 1990s and 2000s. He said that although calls to simply fix an old machine are less common now, the repairman job is still needed by many people who want to use or convert microfilm.

“Microfilm is still going. It's not what it used to be, but it's still there,” Jordan said. “People need help digitizing their microfilm, but it's not the boom that it had in the 1980s.”

Campbell said he is constantly booked with service requests, which can take up to a month to complete. However, the jobs have become like second nature to him.

“House calls, I am booked 30 to 35 days out,” Campbell said. “I can do it with my eyes closed sometimes.”

The love for the technology hasn’t left Campbell either, even after servicing thousands of timekeepers over the years. He said he still finds himself in awe when looking into a clock that has been around for decades or longer.

“I am mesmerized with the mechanics of a clock, what makes it work,” Campbell said. “When you make money and do things you love — I always say I'm paid to be retired.”