Georgia family 'passes time' at iconic clock shop

Family passes time at clock shop

More than 50 years after the doors first opened, Champ’s is as much a tourist attraction as anything else.

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. - If it ever got quiet inside Champ’s Clock Shop – even for a single second – you’d know something was wrong.  The walls there, after all, are covered with more than 800 noisy clocks, all of which practically beg for attention.

"The ticking sounds alone…sounds like the walls are full of termites!”

Jeff Champion is used to the constant sounds, of course; he grew up in the Douglasville shop, the second generation to crank the gears inside.  "We built our first building in 1967, and that's when the clock repair started,” he says.  “By 1980 it was a major contender of clock shops in the area.  By '87, you couldn't go anywhere in the world and fine as many fine clocks in one place for sale."

More than 50 years after the doors first opened, Champ’s is as much a tourist attraction as anything else.  The collection inside is – pardon the pun – striking.  

"We've got clocks in here of just about every type you could imagine,” Champion says.  "We've got clocks here from 1830, and our big tower clock was built in 1865.  We've got the world's largest cuckoo clock.  As far as grandfather clocks, you can't go anywhere else in the world and find this many on display."

And as time continues to tick by at Champ’s Clock Shop, Jeff Champion says he’s realized that the attraction isn’t necessarily about the faces of the clocks, but of the faces of the owners.  

"The nice thing is, in this business, is you're all the time meeting cool people with cool clocks.  And every clock's got its story.”