HK1074082B - Mechanical hour and minute display device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a mechanical device for displaying hours and minutes.

While the digital display of hours and minutes by liquid crystal or light-emitting diodes for quartz watches is known, it is virtually unknown in the case of mechanical watches. Although some attempts have been made, there is no known display device in which the changes in hours and minutes are all instantaneous. Nor is there known a mechanical display device for digital watches in which all the digits are arranged side by side, allowing easy reading and have the same size and size without a sufficient reading error, which assumes that the device displays the units and tens separately, as well as the hours.

Document FR7427878 describes a watch with three discs, the first for minute units, the second for tens of minutes and the third for hours from 1 to 12.

The present invention is precisely intended to overcome the difficulties inherent in the digital display of hours and minutes by mechanical means, which has the effect of doubling the number of display devices compared with traditional analogue display.

For this purpose, the invention is concerned with a mechanical device for displaying hours and minutes as defined in claim 1.

The purpose of the display device described in the present invention is to enable instantaneous digital display of hours and minutes by mechanical means.

The attached drawing shows, schematically and by way of example, an execution of the display device covered by the present invention. Figure 1 is a plan view of the entire mechanical display of the watch part including the hour and minute display device of the invention;Figure 2 is a plan view similar to that of Figure 1, but without the various indicator discs allowing the display mechanisms of this watch part to be seen;Figure 3 is a partial plan view of Figure 2, illustrating the minute display mechanism;Figure 4 is a cut-out view according to line IV-IV of Figure 3;Figure 5 is another partial plan view of Figure 2.illustrating the mechanism for displaying the hours and the day and night time;Figure 6 is a cut-out view according to lines VI-VI of Figure 5;Figure 7 is a partial-plane view of Figure 2, illustrating the display correction mechanism in the unlocked position;Figure 8 is a similar view to Figure 7, illustrating the display correction mechanism in the jammed position;Figure 9 is a cut-out view according to lines IX-IX of Figure 8.

The clockwork shown here as an example has several time-derived indications, including the days of the week, the quantum of the month, the phase of the moon, and the hours of day and night.

It can be seen in Figure 1 that the hours are indicated by two concentric discs 1, 2 bearing the decimal digits (0.1 for a display of hours in 12-hour segments) and the ten-digit units respectively, and that the minutes are indicated by two non-concentric discs 3, 4 bearing the decimal digits (0 to 5) and the ten-digit units respectively.

Two numbers side by side with the pair of discs of the hours 1, 2 are aligned with two adjacent figures of the pair of discs of the minutes 3, 4. These two adjacent pairs of numbers aligned with the discs of the hours 1, 2 and 3, 4 respectively appear through two rectangular counters A and B, respectively, which are placed across the dial of the clock C (Figures 4 and 6) which covers the different display discs shown in Figure 1, as well as the counters commonly used, in particular to indicate the quantum of the month.

The drive mechanism of the 3, 4 minute discs (Figures 3, 4) has a 5 minute drive wheel located in the center of the movement of the watch. The center of this drive wheel 5 has a square aperture 5a that fits on a portion of the same section of the road (not shown) of the classic timer gear, so that this drive wheel 5 rotates at a rate of 1 turn/hour. It is geared with a 6 minute mobile with a ratio of 2/1, so that this minute wheel makes two turns per hour. It is solidary with an instantaneous 7 minute jump wheel of which 30 triangular teeth each form a cam of this gear.

An intermediate swing 8 is mounted pivoting around an axis by a fixing screw 9. This swing 8 has a gear in a socket with a gear of a 10-minute swing mounted pivoting around an axis by a fixing screw 11. This 10-minute swing carries a drive 12 clicker applied against a 10a swing of the swing 10 by a spring 13. This drive 12 clicker is in a socket with a gear of a 14-toothed star with ten triangular teeth, supporting the minute unit disk 4. This 14-toothed star is mounted by a 15-toothed spring.

A spring 16 tends to constantly rotate the intermediate swing 8 in the opposite direction to that of the hands of the clock, thus maintaining a permanent contact between this swing 8 and one of the teeth or cam of the instantaneous jump wheel 7.

The disc of the 3 minute tens is solidary to a star 17 toothed wheel with twelve triangular teeth, positioned by a spring spring 18. This wheel 17 is decentralized in relation to the star 14 toothed wheel solidary to the minute units disc 4. The relative positions of the two toothed wheels in star 14, 17 are such that there is an area in which their respective teeth overlap. A 17a peg is fixed, perpendicular to the plane of the star 17 toothed wheel, in the center of each triangle, thus forming protrusions. These pegs extend in the direction of the star 14 toothed wheel.where one of the ten teeth 14a (Figure 4) is thicker than the rest of this wheel 14, thus forming a protrusion directed towards the wheel in star 17, so that this tooth 14a cuts the trajectory of the 17a ankles and drives the wheel in star 17 one step at each turn of the wheel in star 14.So wheel 17 is also driven by instantaneous jumps, this star wheel 17 has twelve teeth, so it will go around in two hours and disc 4 which is solidary to it has two series of numbers from 0 to 5.

The hour display mechanism (Figures 5, 6) has a 19 hour, instantaneous-jump cam wheel, coaxial to the 5 minute drive wheel, but which is solidary with the (unrepresented) cannon wheel of the conventional timer gear, so that it makes one turn in twelve hours and rotates in the direction of the hands of the watch.

One end of a 20 instant jump swing is pressed by a spring 21 against the cam wheel 19. The other end of this swing carries a 22 clicker, pressed against a 20a buttress, by a spring 23. This clicker 22 is in contact with a 24a 24-tooth swing gear of a 24h mobile 24 that makes a turn. This 24 mobile has a second 24b four-tooth swing gear, arranged symmetrically two by two. The two 24a and 24b relays are solid and coaxial to each other.

The 24a gear of the 24 wheel is in contact with a twelve-toothed 25 star cog wheel of disc 2 of the time units and positioned by a 34 spring spring, while the 24b gear is in contact with a 26 star cog wheel of six teeth, solid of disc 1 of the tens of hours and positioned by a spring. The connection between the 24b gear and the 26 star wheel is not made by means of the teeth of this wheel 26, but by 26a pegs (Figure 6) that protrude perpendicular to this star spring. The angular positions of the four 24b teeth of the wheel are shown to cause the star wheel to rotate in 26 hours once after the first twelve seconds of the cycle and once for a period of 12 seconds, of course, by repeating the 12th period of the cycle.

A sign is used to give information to distinguish between the hours of day and night. To this end, a disc 27 (Figures 1 and 6) which moves under a D-switch is attached to a star wheel 28 (Figures 5 and 6) positioned by a spring spring 29. This star wheel 28 is driven every 12 hours by a finger 30a in conjunction with a pinion 30 which makes two turns in 24 hours, driven by a wheel 31 in conjunction with a coax wheel 32 and in conjunction with the wheel 24.The two periods shown by disc 27 have 12 hours each. They do not necessarily coincide with the 12 hour periods of disc 1, 2 of the time display. Indeed, if disc 27 distinguishes day and night, the beginning of each period may for example begin at 6 a.m., morning, respectively evening. If disc 27 shows the hours in the Anglo-Saxon way, it may bear the indications AM and PM and in this case the periods will coincide with the two 12 hour periods of disc 1, 2.

The mechanism of instantaneous display which has just been described has the peculiarity that its various organs cannot turn in the opposite direction to that of the hands of the watch. Indeed, the presence of the cam wheels 7 and 19 whose triangular teeth each have a side oriented radially, allows rotation only in one direction, since in the opposite direction, the radial sides of the teeth block the wheel when the pendulum is at the bottom of a space separating two teeth.

Even if this problem of the gear direction were solved, if timing were to be performed through the instantaneous-jump mechanism of the minute display mechanism, timing would be extremely time-consuming to perform because of the stepwise drive of the star gear 14 by the swing mechanism 8, 10 and the necessarily limited speed at which this mechanism can be driven.

This is why a special timing mechanism has been developed to meet the two requirements above. This mechanism has a conventional tilting rod 36 on which is mounted an equally conventional sliding pin 37 which slides in a traditional way over a part of the square section of the tilting rod 36 so that this sliding pin 37 is solid in rotation of this rod to roll up whatever its position along this rod 36. This sliding pin 37 has, as with all conventional tilting rods, a neck in which a swing 38 is mounted. This swing 38 is illustrated by a pivoted 39 and a finger is in two, in a usual way, in the rotation of the swinging pin 37 and the swinging pin 39 which moves in the positions 7 and 8 respectively.

When the flowing gear 37 is in the position shown in Figure 8, i.e. in the timing position, its singing gear is in contact with a timing gear 40. This gear 40 has a Breguet 40a singing gear (Figure 9) in contact with a Breguet 41a singing gear, also in contact with a second coaxial gear 41. The second gear 41 is mounted pivoting on a tubular pivoting element 42 in which a puddle spring 43 is housed. This spring 43 presses the two saw teeth 40a, 41a against each other so that the 40a singing gear does not transmit its rotation to the 41a as well as to a desired position, as the other gear 41 has no rotation in the other direction, thus avoiding the risk of rotation of the 42a and 42a, and thus avoiding the risk of mechanical dislocation of the teeth, which in turn causes the rotation of the 42a and 42a axles.

The swing 38 is terminated by two arms forming a 38a grip between which is a tip of a 44 correction swing which carries three 45s, 46s, 47s and which is pivoted coaxially at the swing 46. In the position of the timing mechanism in Figure 7, the three 45s, 46s, 47s are disconnected from the swing 41 and the 14a joint gear of the wheel in the 14 minute star. When the 36 lift rod moves the timing mechanism to the position in Figure 8, the 44 correction swing is moved and the 45s is simultaneously switched on with the 41s and 47s in the 14 minute gear to establish a direct connection between the 37 and 14 minute gear to establish a connection between the 37 and 14 minute gear.

This arrangement disables the star 14's instantaneous jump drive mechanism, with discs 3 and 4 being moved via the 41's, 45's, 46's, 47's and 14a's, allowing for much faster timing than by going through the 8's and 10's.

A 48-recoil, in contact with the 5-wheel drive unit of the road, is also engaged in the timing position of the mounting and timing mechanism with the 45a-recoil so that the unidirectional rotational motion of the 41-recoil is also transmitted to the gear of the hour display mechanism and to all other display mechanisms that may still be associated.

As shown in the previous description, all changes in the minute and hour displays and the hour-derived displays, namely the day and night indication, are controlled by the cam wheel 7 and the pendulum 8, 11 respectively by the cam wheel 19 and the associated pendulum 20.

Figure 1 shows that the watch part described here still has a disc for displaying the days of the week 49, a hand 50 for displaying the quantum of the month, and a disc 51 for displaying the phases of the moon. The drive of these displays is made from a gear 52 (Figures 2 and 5) which is in conjunction with the 19 o'clock cam wheel itself in conjunction with the barrel wheel (not shown) of the usual timing gear of all mechanical displays. These mechanisms are of the classical type and are not part of the present invention, so that it is not useful to describe them here, as they are not necessary to the present invention.

It is obvious that the mechanical display mechanism of the present invention must overcome the friction of the display organs and the loss of energy caused by the assembly of springs designed to store sufficient energy to move the display organs by instantaneous jumps and to overcome the force of the spring-jumps for positioning the display discs. It is obvious that such a display mechanism can only work if the surface condition of the friction surfaces of the various organs of this mechanism allows friction to be reduced as much as possible.

Claims (5)

1. A mechanical hour and minute display device, characterized in that it comprises four disks (1, 2, 3, 4), two (1, 2) for displaying, respectively, the tens and units of hours, two (3, 4) for displaying, respectively, the tens and units of minutes, each disk being fixedly connected to a toothed wheel linked to a positioning jumper spring, said toothed wheels (25, 14), fixedly connected to the two disks (2, 4) so as to display, respectively, the units of hours and of minutes, being linked to respective yoke mechanisms (8, 10, 20) pressed by elastic means (16, 21) against respective instantaneous-jump cam elements (7, 19), and that it further comprises, between said cam elements (7, 19) and said toothed wheels (17, 26) fixedly connected, respectively, to said tens of minutes and of hours disks (3, 1), means (14a, 17a, 24b) for connecting said last toothed wheels (17, 26) to said respective instantaneous-jump cam elements (7, 19) with each change of tens.
2. The device as claimed in claim 1, in which the rotation axes of said toothed wheels (14, 17) fixedly connected, respectively, to said units (4) and tens (3) of minutes display disks are parallel and arranged so that two respective portions of the toothings of these toothed wheels (14, 17) lie one on top of the other, one tooth in ten of said toothed wheel (14) fixedly connected to said unit of minutes display disk having an addendum (14a) directed toward the other toothed wheel (17), whereas each tooth of the latter wheel has an addendum (17a) directed toward the other toothed wheel (14), such that, with each turn of the addendum (14a) of said units display wheel (14) this addendum (14a) advances said tens display wheel by one step.
3. The device as claimed in one of the preceding claims, in which said toothed wheels (25, 26) fixedly connected, respectively, to said units (2) and tens of hours (1) display disks are concentric, a double-geared (24a, 24b) mobile (24) being interposed between said respective yoke mechanism (20) and said last wheels, the first gear (24a) of said mobile (24) being engaged, on the one hand, with said yoke mechanism (20) arranged so as to advance it by one step per hour and, on the other hand, with said toothed wheel (25) fixedly connected to said units of hours display disk (2), the second gear (24b) of said mobile (24) comprising teeth (24b) disposed angularly to mesh with said toothed wheel (26) fixedly connected to said tens of hours display disk with the passage of the tens and every twelve hours.
4. The device as claimed in one of the preceding claims, comprising a time-setting mechanism, the train of which comprises means (40-43) for the unidirectional transmission of the rotation of the winding and time-setting stem (36).
5. The device as claimed in claim 4, in which the time-setting mechanism comprises, on the one hand, means (44-47) for establishing, in the time-setting position of said winding and time-setting stem (36), a direct connection between the latter and said toothed wheel (14) fixedly connected to said disk (4) in order to display the units of minutes and, on the other hand, means (45a, 48) for establishing, in the time-setting position of said winding and time-setting stem (36), a connection between the latter and said double-geared (24a, 24b) mobile (24) interposed between said yoke mechanism (20) and said toothed wheels (25, 26) fixedly connected, respectively, to said units (2) and tens (1) of hours display disks.