Been there, done that, 10-15 years ago. DETEX Watchman's Station. I'd like to find a slope-front station that had the chain and key in good condition for a reasonable price.

Ah! There's a fair number of those on eBay in the $20-40 range. I have one slope-front one, and one that appears to date from before the formation of Detex, as it only mentions Newman.

That would be an old one!

Wow! I remember carrying the anchors they called a watch clock, but the key stations were simply small boxes containing a key.

I own a whole bunch of those clocks. Good timekeepers.

When I first took my current job as Manager at the company I work for, I had one of those anchors hanging on my wall...until the GM decided it was time to take it back to corporate. Now we use wands to check in at check points and if it's wet, they don't work. Then I get to explain to the client, "Well, my officer hit the button, but it was wet and pouring so...yeah, it didn't record..."

If the battery dies in the damned thing, I can't replace it. I have to ship it to the manufacturer for replacement and wait 8 weeks or more (8 weeks if I'm lucky) for it to be returned...

As much as I hated to use those antiques...no batteries, tough as hell and they (almost) always worked.

I first used a Detex when I started my first security job back almost 30 years ago...And the clock was likely older than I was then. (In 1992, I was 19)