Watchman Clocks

Watchman clocks have been around since the days of the railroads. They were originally known as engineers’ clocks. Now we call them guard tour or guard clocks.

Much of guard tour, guard clock, guard tour system, mechanical time clock, mechanical watchman clock and proximity guard tour system history began back in Germany. The Detex Newman was one of the first time clocks ever made. To this day, it has not changed much. Detex recently released a lightweight and low cost alternative to the Newman; it is the Detex Quartz. This watchclock, or guard tour clock, watch clock if you will, is lightweight at 2 lbs, and runs on a battery instead of the incessant winding, not to be misconstrued as incessant whining, which also happens. Okay, back to guard tour and watch man or watchman clock reality.

The Detex Newman uses the basic principal of all Newman clocks, which is direct embossing from the station key on to a carbonless disc. This model was introduced in 1927. The first Newman was introduced to the US in 1902, and the last major upgrade to the product was made in 1927. One of the reasons they are so rugged is that they still build the machines out of solid metal, the same way they did back in 1927. For the past 103 plus years, the Newman has been relatively unchanged. With its offspring the Guardsman, it has outsold all other makes and models combined.

When the Detex line of watchclocks was released in the 1920s, a one-day movement produced by the Burk firm in Schwenningen was used. A drastic import duty initiated in the early depression years forced a change in 1932, and miracle of miracles, they began to build the movement in the USA at the Chelsea Clock Company. In 1939, the German Burk movement was discontinued, and all Newman clocks were now completely American made. The American company then developed an 8 day movement that had larger type, for easier to read reports and much less field maintenance. When Chelsea decided in the late 1940’s that it did not want to be in the business of producing movements for others, it helped DETEX set up to manufacturer the movement itself. Detex moved the escapement production to Switzerland, where it has remained ever since. Final manufacturing of the Detex Newman is still completed in New Braunsfels, Texas.

Mechanical watchclocks use the registration of the Detex Newman with the embossing performed on a continuous tape instead of a circular chart. This allows as much as a week of recording without the attention of a supervisor. It got wide public acceptance right after WWII as industry moved to the two-day weekend that was often extended to three days by holiday closings. Note that Newman also makes the Guardsman key, the Guardsman clock, and the Guardsman Tape.

Electronic watchclock systems include the ARESIII, the Pipe, Morse, Guardsman, Escorte, Proxi-Pen, Proxi Pen, Detex Proxi-Pen, Data Acquisition Units, DAU, Data Transfer Units, Lathem TourScan, Lathem Tour Scan, Tour Scan, and Tourscan, but not the Amano PR600 mechanical watch clock. There is also the Detex Windau, Prisma, and Windau Enterprise software.

The electronic DAU, which is as solid as ˝ of a numchuk, weighs a good 9 ounces, and is as solid as a lead pipe. It is shock resistant, but not water resistant. The ProxiPen or Proxi-Pen is lighter, and works in the most inclement weather. It can work inside a fish tank or under water. You could take this to the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean, open your Alvin window and scan a Proxi pen tag down there. The DAU has a replaceable battery pack, which we are happy to replace for you. The ProxiPen has an easier to replace AA battery, and as far as we can tell, is a much better value at a much lower price. With the DAU, each Data Strip contains a sealed magnetic tape etched with a unique bar code. The advantage of the design is that it cannot be copied or reproduced.
The Escorte system is available for use with a personal computer. The software is known as WinArgus, or Argus, and Win Argus. Prisma is the top of the line for the DAU system. If you have the Escorte system, the next time the DAU breaks, you should consider replacing it with the ProxiPen system. It’s so cost effective that it makes no sense to invest more money in the old DAU system.

WinDau, the new generation of guard tour reporting software. WinDau is flexible and user friendly. The windau software makes it easy to set up tours, download and evaluate collected data and prepare reports, which can be saved and emailed in html or PDF formats. It also has a communication device for all GCS data acquisition units. It uses an MS Access database and modern programming tools. In a word, it is easy to set up. It is much easier t use than the Argus system. WinDau features fully user editable text editors, which make WinDau Software very easy to set up and to operate. The Standard Version of Windau is included in ProxiPen and Patrol Manager kits. It has one single comprehensive evaluation report. You can enter up to 16 programmed guard tours. The Enterprise Edition of WinDau is an innovative upgrade. It supports up to 5,000 checkpoints and up to 99-programmed tours. The program is password protected. The downloaded data is protected by a CRC checksum, so it is essentially hacker-proof.

We stock supplies, parts, and upgrades for watchman and guardsman or guard tour clocks and systems, including the brands Amano, Acroprint, and Detex. If you call us, can get you lifetime technical support on the Detex clocks. Call us today for low prices on Detex and Amano watchman clocks. We sell discount watchman clocks. Back to Top