looks WW1 german Timing divice ?

[Panzerknacker]

My old man got hold of this item, but were not sure on what its for, it has ww1 style leather work and rivets, looks clock work, it has 3 wind key holes, and a tape in the back like it prints something like on a reel ? it has 171847 stamped in the back, made of aluminium case, with a clock face the size of a pocket watch on the front ! any idea`s of what it is ? what its for ? is it german ?
as in picture, thanks

 

[Fuzeman]

In the old days security guards would carry something like that around with them , for clocking in to certain parts of their rounds . any other ideas

 

[spotter]

definately a watchmans clock,i used one very similar about 10 years ago,had to carry the clock around and keys were kept at certain parts of the patrol area ,turn the key in the clock and it records what time you checked that area..
quite a lot of variations can be found on google images http://images.google.co.uk/images?q...ent=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi