HK1059652B - Watch including a case of elongated shape - Google Patents

Description

Watch with elongated case

Technical Field

The invention relates to a watch with an elongated case comprising an elongated dial, a watch movement, a time indicator associated with a time dial on the dial, an additional indicator located outside said time dial and close to one end of the dial, and means for calibrating the additional indicator, the additional indicator comprising a toothed disc which is driven in steps by a control lever periodically actuated by the watch movement through a cam mechanism.

Background

In watches of elongated shape, it is known to use a traditional hour dial of such shape to juxtapose the hour and minute hands on the dial, rotating on the front face thereof, and additional indicators such as a small second hand, a chronograph, a date, a moon phase indicator, etc. For example, swiss patent No.167847 discloses a watch of this type, in which a traditional watch movement comprises, on the one hand, an additional disc with a gear train necessary to display the hours and minutes eccentrically, and, on the other hand, seconds are displayed by means of a so-called small second hand. The watch movement provided in such a case has an elongated shape, and its output shaft is located in the centre of the watch.

In swiss patent No.218931, a timepiece in the form of a marine timepiece is disclosed, comprising two sets of hands for indicating civil time and star time respectively on two similar dials juxtaposed in a rectangular case. The common clock movement mechanism directly drives civil time display. The star time display can be driven by the second wheel of the movement through five groups of intermediate wheels which are arranged in the length direction of the watch case and can ensure proper fixed transmission ratio and are connected in series. This structure cannot be used in a watch because of its size and the juxtaposition of the dials when the two are larger.

In the present invention, it is sought to exploit the advantages of the elongated shape of the case, not only to juxtapose the different indicators in the direction of maximum dimension in the case and in the dial, but also to arrange in the case in an advantageous manner the mechanisms for driving these indicators.

In particular, in the case of additional indicators driven in steps, as in the case of a calendar indicator or a moon phase indicator, there are certain problems in the embodiment of the calibrating device which allows the user to calibrate the additional indicator without interfering with the step-drive mechanism associated with the watch movement. Conventional solutions include providing a ratchet system in the drive mechanism so that the mechanism is not damaged when the drive mechanism is engaged when calibration is performed. This solution has the disadvantage of requiring additional components, which complicates the construction. Another solution consists in providing a lever pivotable under the action of the calibrating device, driving the additional indicator from the watch movement by actuating the lever in the same direction as the drive, so as to prevent mutual interference. Swiss patent No.519191 discloses a structure of this type in which a lever for the date indicator pivots about the centre of the watch movement, the calibration means being formed by a lever common to watches, which can be operated as a push-button and acts on the lever by means of an additional lever. However, this structure has significant drawbacks due to the large size of the lever and the covering of a large part of the surface of the watch movement. Furthermore, the provision of a lever in the form of a lever with a push-button function has an additional complexity.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present invention to avoid the above-mentioned drawbacks by providing an advantageous arrangement of the additional indicator and its actuation and calibration means in an elongated watch case. Another object is to provide a watch with a case whose shape can be aesthetically matched to the setting of the indicators.

There is thus provided a watch having an elongated case comprising an elongated dial, a watch movement, a time indicator associated with a time dial on the dial, an additional indicator located outside said time dial and near one end of the dial, and means for calibrating the additional indicator, the additional indicator comprising a toothed disc, which is driven step-by-step by a control lever periodically actuated by the watch movement through a cam mechanism, characterized in that said teeth of the toothed disc are external teeth driven by the prongs of the control lever, which comprises a first arm cooperating with the watch movement, a second arm provided with said prongs, and a pivot between the first and second arms, the second arm of the lever extending substantially along the edge of the watch case, the calibration means comprising a push-button, which is arranged on said edge of the watch case and is arranged to pivot the control lever by depressing the second arm.

The second arm of the control rod therefore preferably extends between the toothed disc and the edge of the watch case where the calibration button is located. The push button can be directly activated by depressing a part of the lever arm, which simplifies the construction and can be instantaneously separated from the cam drive without any damaging effect on it. Calibration can be performed at any time.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment, the watch case and the dial may have an oval shape, and the watch movement has a substantially circular shape and is housed at one end of the largest radius of the oval watch case.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a watch having an elongated case comprising an elongated dial, a watch movement, a time indicator associated with a time dial on the dial, an additional indicator located outside said time dial and near one end of the dial and driven by the watch movement through a control mechanism, wherein the case and the dial have an oval shape with an end of larger radius and an end of smaller radius, the watch movement is substantially circular and is arranged in an eccentric position in the direction of the end of larger radius, the additional indicator is arranged near the other end of the case, and the control mechanism of the additional indicator comprises a control rod extending near the edge of the case.

Drawings

Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description of a preferred embodiment of a substantially oval watch, given by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the top surface of a watch, including a conventional time indicator, a lunar phase indicator, and an energy reserve indicator;

FIG. 2 shows a drive mechanism for the lunar phase indicator;

fig. 3 shows the watch movement and the disc of the drive mechanism of the energy reserve indicator; and

fig. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in fig. 2.

Detailed Description

The watch 1 shown in the figures has a substantially elliptical or, more precisely, oval case 2, the radius of the top end 3 of the case 2 being smaller than the radius of the bottom end 4, the radius of the bottom end 4 being determined by the radius of a conventional circular watch movement 5 whose outer shape is as shown in figures 2 and 3. The dial 6 of the watch has a shape similar to that of the case 2. In its lower part, are conventional time indicators comprising an hour hand 7 and a minute hand 8 facing an hour dial 10 and rotating about the centre 9 of the movement 5, and a small second hand 11, which is arranged eccentrically with respect to the centre 9 and rotates facing a specific dial 12. Movement 5 is a conventional automatic watch movement, preferably of the type 7866NL by the applicant. This movement can be controlled in a conventional manner by means of a control lever arranged radially with respect to the movement and provided with a control crown 13. Due to the oval shape of the watch case, the lever does not occupy the "3 o ' clock" position on the traditional hour dial 10, but is located in a position substantially at "4 o ' clock", so that the movement 5 is rotated by 30 ° with respect to its normal position, and the small second hand 11 is located at the "7 o ' clock" position on the hour dial 10. The control rod is thus at right angles to the edge of the watch case. The longitudinal axes of the case 2 and the dial 6 are parallel to the direction of the bracelet, the ends 14 and 15 of which are connected to the ends 3 and 4 of the case, respectively.

Two additional indicators are provided on the side of the top end 3 of the watch. These are a lunar phase indicator formed by a disc 16 appearing in a hole 17 of the dial 6, and an energy reserve indicator formed by a pointer 18 facing a dial 19 moving sector-shaped between a state L (low) and a state H (high) to display the tension of the barrel spring of the movement 5. The shaft 20 of the hand 18 is near the top of the dial. The two additional indicators are therefore in the smaller end of the oval shape and therefore in the space not occupied by the watch movement 5 and by the time indicators 7 to 12.

The components of the lunar phase indicator and its control mechanism will now be described with reference to figures 2 and 4. These components are mounted on the disc of mechanism 22, mechanism 22 having an oval shape adapted to watch case 2 and being fixed by screws 23 to a circular disc 24 of watch movement 5. This movement comprises, in a conventional manner, a central seconds wheel set 26 mounted in a tube 27, a motion wheel 28, a closed minute wheel shaft 30 carrying the minute hand 8, and an hour wheel tube 31 carrying the hour hand 7 and fixed to an hour wheel 32, the hour wheel 32 being in mesh with a control wheel 33 which makes one revolution every twenty-four hours. A wheel 33 is mounted on the disc of the mechanism 22, on the side of the dial 6, and is provided with a pin 34 for actuating the control lever once a day, which moves the lunar phase indicator 16 one step forward.

The lever 35 is formed by a simple flat piece forming a lever with two arms 36 and 37 between which a pivot 38 is provided, said shaft having the form of a tube 39 fixed in the disc 22 and in which a fastening screw 40 is engaged. The spring 41 tends to keep the lever 35 in a rest position in which the first arm 36 of the lever rests against the stop 42, while the tip 43 provided at the end of the second arm 37 does not engage with the external tooth 44 with the fifty-nine teeth of the moon disk 16. The disc 16 is rotatably mounted on the disc of the mechanism 22, abuts a shaft 45 formed by a screw, and is held in position by a pawl 46, the pawl 46 being tensioned by a spring 47 to engage with the external teeth 44.

The end of the first arm 36 of the control lever 35 has a V-shaped cam surface 49 and the pin 34 of the wheel 33 can slide on the cam surface 39 to push the arm 36 outwards so that the lever 35 can pivot clockwise about its axis 38 and its prong 43 engages obliquely with the tooth 44 to move the disc 16 one step forward until the ratchet 46 has cleared the next tooth. This operation is performed once a day, so that the disc 16 rotates one revolution every fifty-nine days, i.e. about two lunar months. It should be noted that, since the cam surface 49 is V-shaped, the action of the pin 34 is the same regardless of the direction of rotation of the wheel 33. This means that no intermediate gear has to be provided between the hour wheel 32 and the wheel 33.

Thanks to the presence of control rod 35, at least second arm 37 of which extends substantially along edge 50 of disc 22 and therefore along a corresponding edge 51 of case 2, the calibration means of the lunar phase indicator can be made very simply in the form of a button 52 sliding in the middle part of case 2, which calibration means can be activated when the user presses button 52 in the direction of arrow P shown in figure 2 against a pin 53 fixed to second arm 37 of the rod. This action has the same effect as the pin 34, namely pivoting the lever 35 clockwise and moving the disc 16 one step forward. This action therefore does not interfere with the cam mechanism formed by the pin 34 and the cam surface 49, even when the cam surface 49 is engaged.

It should be noted that the simple elongated shape of the control lever 35 and the arrangement of the two arms of the lever and the calibration means along the case rim 51 occupy a small position and take up the available lateral space beside the watch movement 5 and the lunar indicator disc 16. In particular, a first arm 36 extends substantially between the control wheel 33 and the edge of the watch case, and a second arm 37 extends between the disc 16 and the edge of the watch case. The lever 35 constitutes a transmission member "straddling" the space between the respective positions of the watch movement and the lunar phase indicator. This arrangement of the lever also has the advantage that it does not take up the space required for the energy reserve indicator. It should also be noted that the shaft 45 of the disc 16 is located outside the periphery of the watch movement, so that the means for supporting the disc can be provided beside the movement if necessary.

The components of the mechanism that can actuate the pointer 18 of the energy reserve indicator will now be described with reference to fig. 3, where these components are shown in perspective to facilitate reading. Since the principles of such mechanisms are well known, they will only be briefly described herein. It comprises a differential gear formed by a planetary gear 56, the two inputs of planetary gear 56 being connected, through respective gears, to the cover of barrel 57 and to a spring shaft 58, these two components being connected by a spring which can drive movement 5. The output of the planetary gear 56 drives a gear 59 which is frictionally coupled to an auxiliary wheel 60, the auxiliary wheel 60 being fixed to a pointer 61, the pointer 61 being pivotable between two stop mechanisms 62, 63 fixed to the disc of the mechanism 22. The auxiliary wheel 60 meshes with the teeth 64 of a rack 65, which rack 65 pivots about an axis 66 and is fixed to a first sector gear 67 centered on the axis 66. The sector gear 67 meshes with a second sector gear 68 fixed to the cursor 18 and pivoting about its axis 20. The two stop mechanisms 62 and 63 determine the two end positions of the hands 18 corresponding to the maximum and minimum energy reserve values of the watch. These two positions also correspond to the two positions of the rack 65 as shown by the continuous and broken lines in fig. 3, respectively.

The rack 65 and the sector gears 67 and 68 are mounted between the plate of the mechanism 22 and a bridge 70 fixed to the plate by screws 71 and 72. It should be noted that the drive mechanism of the energy reserve indicator occupies space not occupied by the drive mechanism of the lunar phase indicator. This advantageous arrangement is also obtained due to the oval shape of the watch and the fact that these indicators do not overlap on the watch movement 5. Moreover, since the two additional indicators are located outside the hour scale 10, they may be larger than when located inside the hour scale.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

Although the oval shape of the watch within the scope of the invention has been specifically described above, the invention is not limited to this shape, but can be applied to any other watch of elongated shape, for example elliptical, rectangular or cylindrical. For this purpose, it is also possible to provide the basic watch movement 5 and the hour dial 10 in the centre of the watch case, so as to provide two additional indicators at the top and bottom of the dial, respectively, thus obtaining the advantages described above.

Claims (10)

1. Watch with an elongated case (2) comprising an elongated dial (6), a watch movement (5), time indicators (7, 8) associated with a time dial (10) on said dial, an additional indicator located outside said time dial and close to one end of said dial, and means (52, 53) for calibrating said additional indicator, said additional indicator comprising a toothed disc (16), said toothed disc (16) being driven in steps by a control lever (35) periodically actuated by said watch movement through a cam mechanism (33, 34, 49),

characterized in that the teeth (44) of the toothed disc (16) are external teeth driven by a beak (43) of the control lever (35) comprising a first arm (36) cooperating with the watch movement, a second arm (37) provided with said beak and a pivot (38) located between said first and second arms, the second arm (37) of the control lever extending substantially along an edge (51) of the watch case (2), the calibrating means comprising a push-button (52) provided on the watch case edge and arranged to pivot the control lever by depressing the second arm (37).

2. Watch according to claim 1, characterised in that the second arm (37) of the control lever extends between the toothed disc (16) and the case rim (51).

3. Watch according to claim 1, characterised in that said cam mechanism comprises a cam surface (49) provided on one side of a first arm (36) of said lever and a control wheel (33) continuously driven by said watch movement (5), and in that a pin (34) is provided which can push said cam surface against the force of a spring (41).

4. A watch according to claim 3, characterised in that the first arm (36) of the control lever extends substantially between the control wheel (33) and the case rim (51).

5. Watch according to claim 1, characterised in that said additional indicator is a calendar or moon phase indicator, which appears in a hole (17) on said dial (6) outside said hour dial (10).

6. Watch according to claim 1, characterised in that the axis of the toothed disc (16) and of the calibration means (52, 53) is located outside the periphery of the watch movement (5).

7. Watch according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that said case (2) and dial (6) have an oval shape.

8. Watch according to claim 7, characterised in that said watch movement (5) has a substantially oval shape and is located in the end (4) of the largest radius of the oval case.

9. Watch with an elongated case (2) comprising an elongated dial (6), a watch movement (5), time indicators (7, 8) associated with a time dial (10) on said dial, an additional indicator located outside said time dial and close to one end of said dial and driven by said watch movement through a control mechanism,

characterized in that said case (2) and said dial (6) have an oval shape with a larger radius end (4) and a smaller radius end (3), said watch movement (5) being substantially circular and being arranged in an eccentric position in the direction of said larger radius end (4), said additional indicator being arranged close to the other end (3) of said case, the control mechanism of said additional indicator comprising a control lever (35) extending close to the case edge (51).

10. Watch according to claim 9, characterised in that said control lever (35) is associated with a calibration button (52) mounted on said case rim (51).