EP2263125B1 - Watch with time zone display - Google Patents

Description

Background of the invention

The present invention relates to an analog display watch having a first time display for a first time zone, associated with a first time setting device, a second time display for a second time zone, associated with a second manual setting device. at time, and a time zone indicator having at least one index and a ring of places provided with place symbols which represent time zones, the ring of locations being rotatable next to said index or vice versa, the first manual time-setting device being capable of simultaneously setting the first and second time displays simultaneously, and the second time-setting device being able to rotate the second time display and the time display together step by step. time zone indicator without changing the state of the first time display.

There is a description of a watch of this kind in the patent US 3633354 (= From 1933049 ). In the version of figures 1 and 2 From this patent, the time display comprises four central hands, including a second hand and a minute hand which are driven as usual by the watch movement. By a conventional clockwork, the pavement drives a 24-hour wheel carrying a first hour hand, to indicate for example the time of the home time zone ("home time") on a scale of 24 hours. To display the time of the second time zone, usually the local time, a second hour hand is secured to a 12-hour wheel which is connected to the 24-hour wheel by a planetary gear, including the planet carrier is provided with the ring of places with city names appearing in turn in a window of the dial to identify the second time zone. A usual time-setting device with a stem and a crown makes it possible to simultaneously rotate the 24-hour wheel and the 12-hour wheel, thus the two hour hands. the minute hand. A second time-setting device, operated by means of a manual crown or pushers, moves in 1/24 turn steps the planet carrier, thus the ring of the places and simultaneously the 24 hour wheel. his needle.

With this construction, when the same hour is displayed by the two hour hands, it is always the same time zone (the original one) which is indicated by the ring of places. If we wanted the user to be able to change the original time zone, we would have to add a possibility of disengagement between the two hour hands. On the other hand, with the concentric display of two different hours, the user may be wrong in reading.

The transition from winter time to summer time and vice versa is also a problem when they do not take place at the same time in the two time zones considered, since the difference between both time displays, and this while maintaining the same location indication. In particular, this problem arises whenever one of the two places considered is in the northern hemisphere and the other in the southern hemisphere. Therefore for this reason too, it is desirable to have means of time setting or correction that offer greater freedom of manipulation, allowing to perform the current maneuvers as simply as possible.

An additional problem in such watches is due to time zones whose offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is not an integral multiple of one hour. For example, the official time of certain countries or territories is fixed in steps of half an hour (for example in India, Iran, Newfoundland, Venezuela, etc.), or even a quarter of an hour. (Nepal) compared to the 24 time zones. It is therefore desirable to be able to easily indicate the time of such time zones by means of the second time display, without the user being required to handle more complicated than for a conventional time zone. It has been provided in the patent US 4717260 , a rudimentary system allowing half-hour offsets on a universal time watch, but it would not be usable with a dual-time dial.

Another example of a watch with the display of two time zones is given in the document DE29810245 U1 .

Because of the aforementioned problems, the use of most current watches displaying the time of two time zones is practical only in certain standard situations and becomes too complicated in other cases.

Summary of the invention

The present invention aims to create a watch able to display simultaneously and clearly the hours of two time zones, facilitating the manipulations required for time changes and / or time zone. A particular goal is to allow the user to take into account the summer and winter times for each of the two locations, so as to introduce the correct time difference between the two displays of time.

For this purpose, there is provided a watch of the type indicated in the preamble above, characterized in that it comprises, in addition to the first and second time-setting devices, a manual place of correction, able to move not step the location ring relative to said index without changing the state of the first and second time display.

Thus, it is possible to change the time zone indication easily without changing the time displays, especially when both time displays are set to the same time. An important practical consequence is that from this position, after having brought the correct indication of the original time zone using the location corrector if it were necessary, it is sufficient to act on the second setting device. the time until the time zone indicator indicates the second time zone, and the time of the second time zone will be automatically displayed.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the time zone indicator comprises two indexes, angularly offset by 1/24 of a turn, so that when the symbol of a given time zone is next to the first of these index, the second time display shows the time normal or winter, while when the same symbol is next to the second index, the second time display shows daylight saving time in the same time zone, if applicable. Preferably, it is the ring places that is rotatable, while said first and second indexes are counters in the dial for hourly displays. We will see later how the presence of two indexes or counters easily resolves the problems created by daylight saving time.

Other features and advantages of the invention will appear below in the description of a presently preferred embodiment, presented by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Brief description of the drawings

• The figure 1 is a schematic view of a wristwatch according to the invention, when it displays the time for two time zones offset by eleven and a half hours mutually.
• The figure 2 is a partially cut plan view of the location disk, associated with a location corrector and a time-setting device in the watch of the figure 1 .
• The Figures 3 to 6 represent different states of the display during maneuvers performed on the watch of the figure 1 .

Detailed description of an embodiment

With reference to the figure 1 the watch shown comprises a box 30 containing in particular the specific display members of the present invention. On the periphery of the box are arranged manual control members comprising two setting crowns 31 and 32, a date setting ring 33 and a location correction push-button 34. On its upper face, the watch has a dial 36 serving all the displays mentioned below. Other elements of the watch, which are not necessary to describe the present invention, are omitted from the drawings for simplicity.

To display the time of a first time zone, in general that of the home of the user of the watch, there is provided a first time display 40, comprising a minute hand 42 and an hour hand 41 making a turn in twenty-four hours next to a corresponding hour-turn 43 which is off-center on the dial 36. To display the time of a second time zone, in general that where the user of the watch is or goes , there is provided a second time display 44, comprising a central minute hand 46 and a central hour hand 45 making a turn in twelve hours in front of a traditional clock tower 47 centered in the dial 36, which corresponds in the usual display mode and thus allows a fast and safe reading. This second time display 44 further comprises a day / night indicator 48 including, for example, a needle 49 coupled to the needle 46 by a gear so as to make a turn in twenty-four hours. The two time displays 40 and 44 are driven by the clock movement housed in the box 30. This movement could also cause a second hand, added to one or other of the time displays.

A time zone indicator 50 comprises two windows 51 and 52 formed in the dial 36 and angularly offset by 1/24 of a turn relative to the center of the dial, to show two equally offset sectors on a rotating locus ring 53, represented in FIG. part in the figure 2 and carrying a circular array of symbols 54 each representing one of the time zones currently used in the world. The first window 51 is used in combination with the display of the standard time of a time zone, which is also the winter time of this time zone if there is one summer time in the territory considered. In the latter case, the second window 52 is used in combination with the display of daylight saving time (DST = Daylight Saving Time), as will be seen later.

On the other hand, the watch includes a calendar display 55 and a moon phase indicator 56 that are not part of the invention described here, but the date indication can provide useful information in combination with one of the time displays and the time zone indicator.

With reference to the figure 2 the place symbols 54 applied to the ring of places 53 comprise twenty-four main symbols, mutually spaced at an angle of 15 °, representing an offset of one hour. According to current practice, symbols 54 are here formed of three letters constituting a code of a well known place (city, airport, island), characterizing the time zone situation on the globe. For example, LAX is the IATA code of Los Angeles International Airport. Additional symbols 54a are interposed between the main symbols, with an angular deviation of 7.5 ° with respect to one of them, to represent intermediate time zones in which the time difference with respect to UTC is one half hour plus a whole number of hours. Among these additional symbols 54a, those seen in the figure 4 represent the respective spindles of Iran (THR), Afghanistan (KBL), India (DEL), Myanmar (MYA), Central Australia (DRW), Norfolk Island (NLK) and the Marquesas Islands (MAQ). In addition, other additional symbols 54b are interposed between the main symbols, with an angular deviation of 3.75 ° with respect to one of them, to represent intermediate time zones in which the time shift legal compared to UTC is one or three quarters of an hour plus a whole number of hours. Among these additional symbols 54b, we see in the figure 4 those representing the Nepal UTC-5: 45 spindle (KTM), and the Chatham Islands (CHI) UTC + 12: 45 spindle.

In order to keep the ring of the places 53 snug in all the respective positions that the symbols 54 (including 54a and 54b) can take in front of the wickets 51 and 52, a support 58 incorporated in the ring 53 is provided with notches 59 in which can engage a roller 65 of a jumper 60 pushed by a spring 61. The support 58 further comprises a toothing 62 to ninety-six teeth, for rotating the ring 53 in steps of 3 , 75 ° corresponding to an offset of a quarter of an hour, this step being also the module of the differences between the symbols 54 and between the notches 59. A pinion 63 with eight teeth, held slightly by a jumper spring 64, is engaged permanently in the toothing 62 and can rotate one step at a time under the action of the corrector pushbutton 34 mentioned with reference to the figure 1 . Thus, repeated presses on this pusher allow the user to manually rotate the ring of places 53 to display the desired symbol 54 in any of the windows 51 and 52.

In the figure 2 there are conventional elements of the second time display 44, namely the hour wheel 66, the minute wheel 67 and the timer wheel 68 connecting these two wheels. In the present case, these elements are driven from the movement by means of a minute wheel 70 coupled to the wheel of the first time display 40 and provided with spring catches 71 capable of snapping into notches. 72 of the wheel 67. The angular pitch between the notches 72 corresponds to the smallest fraction of an hour between the time zones indicated by the ring 53, so a quarter of an hour in the present case, corresponding to a quarter turn of the minutes wheel 67. It will be noted that setting the time of the first time display 40 rotates the minute handwheel 70 and with it the wheel 67, thus simultaneously sets the second time display 44.

The figure 2 also shows a second manual time-setting device 74, which the user actuates manually by the ring gear 32 fixed to a control rod 75 of conventional construction, with a sliding pinion 76 which engages with a pinion gear. time setting 77 when the crown 32 is pulled. The pinion 77 drives an intermediate wheel 78 which is engaged with an intermittent mechanism 79 comprising a wheel 80 secured to a switching wheel 81. The periphery thereof has four toothed sectors 82 each comprising a quarter of the number of teeth of the minute wheel 67, to drive it in steps of a quarter of a turn. During such a time setting of the second time display, the mobile 70 is retained by the first time display, so that the notches 72 move relative to the pawls 71 and engage every quarter hour of jet lag .

On the other hand, the intermediate wheel 78 and connected to the pinion 63 by a second intermittent mechanism 84 having a wheel 85 in permanent engagement with the wheel 78. On the wheel 85 are fixed a wheel of switching 86, having four teeth spaced to drive gear 63 intermittently, and a star 87 with four branches. The jumper 60 cooperates with the star 87 to produce two effects when its roller 65 engages in one of the notches of the ring places 53: give on the ring 32 a snap sensation each time a symbol 54 is located in front of one of the windows 51 and 52, and on the other hand holds the device 74 in stop positions where the intermittently moving mechanisms 79 and 84 are decoupled from the driven members 67 and 63 and prevent therefore that these bodies 67 and 63 can drive the intermediate wheel 78 and therefore the other body. This is due to the fact that, in the four stop positions determined by the jumper 60, the teeth of the wheel 86 remain out of reach of the teeth of the pinion 63, just as the toothed sectors 82 remain out of reach of the teeth of the minute wheel 67. In other words, each of the two mechanisms with intermittent movement transmits the movement only from the ring 32 and the intermediate wheel 78. Thanks to these decoupling, the actuation of the pusher 34 does not alter the time displays 44 and 40, and the joint time setting of the two time displays by means of the first ring 31 does not change anything in the time zone indicator 50.

The time setting operations on the watch described above are as follows. Referring to Figures 3 to 6 Let's start from an initial situation where the display must be set to two new time zones.

By rotating the crown 31 in a pulled position, a time-setting mechanism similar to that of an ordinary watch is operated to set the first time display 40 to the home time, for example 8:10 according to the figure 3 . In the watch according to the invention, said mechanism acts in the same way on the second time display 44, which will take a position depending on its initial state. The crown 31 can then be pushed back.

By pulling the crown 32 and rotating it in one direction or the other, both the second time display 44 and the ring of the places 53 are rotated and the passage is sensed 59 each. timezone symbol 54 arrives just in front of one of the windows 51 and 52. For this setting initially, we will put the second time display 44 at the same time as the first, taking into account the day / night indicator 48, which gives the state represented in figure 4 .

It is then necessary to rotate the ring of places 53 by repeated pressing on the pusher 34 until the symbol 54 of the time zone of the home (here FRA for Frankfurt) takes place in one of the wickets, namely the top window 52 when it is daylight saving time or the lower window 51 when it is winter time or normal, as is the case in the figure 5 . The second time display 44 has not turned.

Suppose the wearer of the watch travels to a country in the same time zone as Moscow (MOW). By pulling the crown 32 and rotating it in the direction corresponding to an eastward trip, it moves the second time display 44 and the location ring 53 together to bring the MOW symbol behind the top window 52, if daylight saving time currently applies in the country of destination, or otherwise behind the lower window 51 as is the case in the figure 6 . Display 44 advanced exactly two hours in this case. On the other hand, the example of figure 1 represents a similar operation in the case where the traveler goes to Norfolk Island, located in the southern hemisphere. It is assumed that summer time is then in effect. The corresponding symbol NLK must therefore be brought behind the upper window 52. The second time display indicates 19:40, the time difference with the winter time of Central Europe (FRA time zone) being then 10 hours 30 minutes plus 1 hour for daylight saving time on Norfolk Island.

In view of the above description, one skilled in the art will understand that this time zone watch is both versatile and easy to use. On the one hand, the use of two separate time displays 40 and 44 with two hands each makes it possible to read the two times in a precise and unambiguous manner, and on the other hand the manual control means allow, by simple manipulations, display the time of any place in the world and make time zone changes taking into account daylight saving time and hemispheric changes, if any.

Claims (10)

1. Analogue display watch including a first time display (40) for a first time zone, associated with a first time-setting device (31), a second time display (44) for a second time zone, associated with a second, manual, time-setting device (33, 74), and a time zone indicator (50) including at least one index (51) and a place ring (53) provided with place symbols (54), which represent time zones, the place ring rotating opposite said index or vice-versa, the first, manual, time-setting device being able to set the time of the first and second time displays (40, 44) simultaneously, and the second time-setting device being able to rotate the second time display (44) and the place ring (53) or the index (51) of the time zone indicator (50), together step-by-step, without changing the state of the first time display (40), the second time display including hour and minute hands (45 and 46), characterized in that it further includes a manual place corrector (34, 63), able to move the place ring (53) step by step in relation to said index (51), without changing the state of the first and second time displays (40, 44).
2. Watch according to claim 1, characterized in that the axis of rotation of the second time display is at the centre of the dial (36), whereas the first time display (40) has hour and minute hands (41, 42), whose axis of rotation is offset on the dial.
3. Watch according to claim 2, characterized in that the hour hand (45) of the second time display completes one revolution in twelve hours.
4. Watch according to claim 3, characterized in that the time display also has a day/night indicator (48).
5. Watch according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the time zone indicator (50) has two indexes (51, 52), shifted angularly by 1/24^th of a revolution, such that when the symbol of a determined place is opposite a first (51) of said indexes, the second time display (44) indicates the second or winter time, whereas when said symbol is opposite the said second index (52), the second time display (44) indicates the daylight saving time of the same place, where necessary.
6. Watch according to claim 5, characterized in that the place ring (53) can rotate and said indexes are apertures (51, 52) arranged in a dial (36) to each reveal one place symbol at a time.
7. Watch according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the place symbols (54) are distributed over the circumference of the place ring (53) with a smaller step than 1/24^th of a revolution, in particular 1/96^th of a revolution, so as to include symbols (54a, 54b) representing time zones that differ by a non-integer number of hours relative to UTC.
8. Watch according to claim 6, characterized in that the place ring (53) includes a series of notches (59), distributed over the circumference thereof so as to correspond to all the possible positions of the place symbols (54) opposite the apertures (51, 52), and in that a jumper-spring (60) engages in said notches (59), in succession, and cooperates with the second, manual, time-setting device (74) so that the user can feel the change from one notch to another during the time-setting operation.
9. Watch according to claim 1, characterized in that the second, manual, time-setting means (74) include an intermediate wheel (78) driven in rotation from a manual control crown (32), said wheel (78) being respectively connected to the second time display (44) via a first intermittent movement mechanism (79) and to the time zone indicator (50), via a second intermittent movement mechanism (84), said intermittent movement mechanisms (79, 84) preventing the intermediate wheel (78) from being driven from the second time display (44) or the time zone indicator (50).
10. Watch according to claims 7 and 9, characterized in that said intermittent movement mechanisms (79, 84) produce intermittent movements that each correspond to a time difference of a quarter of an hour.

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