Lockable buckle

A lockable buckle assembly comprising:

• a buckle body including a recess and a lock tumbler;
• a fastener configured to slide within the recess;
• a key configured to fit within a key hole of the lock tumbler, wherein when the key is in a locked rotational orientation within the key hole and the fastener is engaged in the recess, the tumbler is in a locked orientation and the fastener may not be slid from the recess, and when the key is in an unlocked rotational orientation within the key hole and the fastener is engaged in the recess, the tumbler is in an unlocked orientation and the fastener may be slide from the recess;
• and
• a key rotation prevention mechanism that prevents the key from being rotated from the unlocked rotational orientation to the locked rotational orientation unless the fastener is engaged in the recess.

A lockable buckle subassembly for use with a key, the subassembly comprising:

• a buckle body including a recess and a lock tumbler;
• a fastener configured to slide into the recess;
• and
• wherein the tumbler is configured to have a locked orientation and an unlocked orientation, wherein when the tumbler is in the locked orientation and the fastener is engaged in the recess, the fastener may not be slid from the recess, and when the tumbler is in the unlocked orientation and the fastener is engaged in the recess, the fastener may be slid from the recess, and wherein when the key is inserted into a key hole of the tumbler, the key may be removed from the key hole only when the tumbler is in the locked orientation.

A lockable buckle subassembly for use with a key, the subassembly comprising:

• a buckle body including a recess, a retention rib, and a lock tumbler;
• a fastener configured to slide into the recess;
• a tumbler configured to have a locked orientation and an unlocked orientation, wherein when the tumbler is in the locked orientation and the fastener is engaged in the recess, the fastener may not be slid from the recess, and when the tumbler is in the unlocked orientation and the fastener is engaged in the recess, the fastener may be slide from the recess;
• and
• a tumbler unlatching mechanism that unlatches the tumbler to allow the tumbler to be rotated from the locked orientation to the unlocked orientation only upon the key being inserted into a key hole of the tumbler, wherein insertion of the key biases a finger on the buckle body to a position whereby a notch formed in the key becomes aligned with the retention rib such that the tumbler can be rotated from the locked rotational orientation to the unlocked rotational orientation.