CH702078A2 - Mechanical time piece, has regulating element, whose oscillations are maintained by escapement, and gear train that is arranged in manner so that jumping second hand performs revolution in specific seconds - Google Patents

Abstract

The time piece has a gear train driven by a barrel, where the gear train has a minute wheel and a second wheel. An escapement is activated by the gear train, where the escapement has an escapement wheel. A mobile (34) of another gear train is mounted to an arbor of the escapement wheel. The latter gear train is arranged in a manner so that a jumping second hand performs a revolution in 10 seconds. A regulating element, whose oscillations is being maintained by the escapement.

Description

Technical area

The present invention relates to a timepiece with mechanical second hand lightning, comprising: a barrel, a first wheel driven by the barrel and having a minute wheel and a second wheel, an exhaust operated by the gear, a regulating organ whose oscillations are maintained by said escapement, the latter comprising an escape wheel engaged with the second wheel, and a second wheel whose first mobile is mounted on the shaft of the escape wheel and whose last mobile is mounted on the shaft carrying the jumping second hand.

State of the art

In a device second lightning, a second hand performs high speed, above the dial, a turn in one, two, three or four seconds, this turn being divided into several jumps.

According to the construction adopted in the prior art, as described in EP 0 871 095, the jumping second hand is carried by a mobile whose shaft comprises a pinion and two superimposed stars. The pinion is engaged with a gear train terminating in a barrel, preferably an auxiliary barrel to the main barrel of the movement. One of the stars is driven on the shaft, while the other is rotatably mounted and cooperates with a driven wheel driven on the shaft of an anchor escapement wheel maintaining the oscillations of an organ regulator, the escapement and the regulating organ (balance spring) being, like the barrel, dedicated to the function of second lightning. Typically, the control wheel carries 30 teeth and the free star carries 4.

Moreover, the two wheels are coupled using a pin secured to the fixed star and passing through a circular oblong opening made in the free star. This pin limits the movement of the free star in order to avoid a blockage of the control wheel.

Whenever the escape wheel stops on the rest of an elevation of the anchor, the control wheel immobilizes the free star and releases it to the next oscillation. Thus, for a watch beating 14 400 vibrations, each oscillation of its balance, the pinion on which are mounted the needle and the fixed star rotate a quarter turn. The needle thus performs one revolution in 4 seconds.

[0006] A more precise description of such a particularly ingenious mechanism can be found in the book entitled "Complicated Watches", pages 21 to 26, by François Lecoultre, Editions Horlogères 1951 (Switzerland).

Such achievements are, obviously, very complicated, expensive and cumbersome since they mobilize, in particular, a barrel, two stars, an exhaust and a regulating member.

[0008] Moreover, a firing second hand is sometimes coupled to a chronograph mechanism. In this case, a blazing second hand may be provided to make one turn per second, performing 4, 5 or 8 stops, to indicate quarters, fifths or eighths of a second. Its operation (Start, Stop and Reset) is common to the chronograph functions.

The present invention aims to provide a lightning second display system simple to implement and providing a system of. reading particularly suitable for reading a timed time.

Disclosure of the invention

More specifically, the invention relates to a mechanical timepiece with second lightning needle as mentioned in the first paragraph of the present application, characterized in that said second wheel is arranged so that the Lightning second hand performs, in jumps, one turn in 10 seconds.

The invention also relates to a timepiece provided with a chronograph mechanism and a second lightning mechanism, whose start, stop and reset are coupled to those of the chronograph. The second lightning mechanism has a second hand of lightning capable of making a turn in 10 seconds, at 10 jumps per second, to read the seconds, particularly the unit of seconds, and tenths of the time timed. The chronograph mechanism includes a second hand capable of making a turn in one hour to read the minutes of the timed time and a third hand capable of performing a lap in one minute to read the seconds, especially the ten seconds, the time timed .

Brief description of the drawings

Other details of the invention will appear more clearly on reading the description which follows, made with reference to the accompanying drawing in which: <tb> fig. 1 <sep> shows a view of the dial of a timepiece according to the invention, with three reading positions, respectively shown in FIGS. 1a, 1b and 1c, <tb> fig. 2 <sep> shows a view of the mechanism according to the invention, and to illustrate the advantages of the invention, FIGS. 3 and 4 give examples of views of the dial of timepieces not made according to the invention, with three reading positions respectively shown in the figures indexed a, b and c.

Mode (s) of realization of the invention

The mechanical timepiece shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is intended to display, on a dial 10, the hour, minute, and second of the current time, but also the minute, the second and the tenth of a second of the timed time as well as the date.

As shown in FIG. 1, the hour and the minute of the current time as well as the second and the tenth of a second of the timed time are displayed in the center of the room respectively by large hands 12, 14 and 16. The minutes and the second of the timed time, as well as the second of the current time, are respectively displayed at the 6 o'clock position by a small hand 18, at the 3 o'clock position by a small hand 20 and at the 9 o'clock position by a small hand 22. As will be better understood by following, the needle 16 particularly allows the reading of the unit of seconds and tenths of the timed time, while the needle 20 allows the reading of the ten seconds of the timed time. Finally, the date is displayed by a disc 24 appearing behind an opening made in the dial at the 4 o'clock and half position.

The peculiarity of this piece lies essentially in the manner in which the needle 16 displays the seconds unit and the tenth of a second of the timed time. The other display functions being conventional, their description will not be given in detail.

As shown in FIG. 2, the timepiece according to the invention comprises, under its dial 10, a movement which comprises a frame formed of a plate and bridges, serving, in a conventional manner, the positioning of the mobiles.

The axis on which is fixed the needle of the second current 22 carries a driven second wheel, as is known, at a rate of 1 revolution per minute, by the gear train finishing the movement. This wheel is engaged with the pinion of the wheel of an unrepresented escapement which performs 1 revolution in 4 seconds. The escapement maintains the oscillations of a regulating member consisting of a balance spring (not shown) oscillating advantageously at 5 Hz or 36,000 alternations, or 10 alternations per second. Thus, the escape wheel rotates by performing 10 jumps per second.

As shown in FIG. 2, the shaft of the escape wheel carries, bottom side, a first wheel 34 meshing with a second wheel 36 mounted on the same shaft as a wheel 38 of larger diameter. This meshes with a clutch wheel 40 mounted on a rocker 42, pivoting about an axis 44 and actuable by a column wheel 46 controlled by a conventional chronograph mechanism which will not be described in detail.

The column wheel 46 allows to place the latch 42 in two positions. In the one shown in FIG. 3, for which the chronograph function is engaged, the clutch wheel 40 meshes with a chronograph central wheel 48 coaxial with the needles 12, 14 and 16. In the other position, not shown, for which the chronograph function is not not activated, the clutch wheel 40 does not act on the central wheel 48.

The mobiles 34, 36, 38, 40, 48 form a wheel whose elements are numbers so that the wheel 48 performs one revolution in 10 seconds at 10 jumps per second. This wheel 48 is fixed on an axis 50 carrying the needle 16 which thus makes it possible to display the tenth of a second on the dial 10, by making a revolution in 10 seconds at a rate of 10 jumps per second. The dial is marked with a graduation that also reads the unit of seconds of the timed time.

As is the case for any chronograph, the axis 50 carries a heart 52 for the resetting of the needle 16. In a manner known also, this axis is, moreover, in the center of a mechanism of driving the hour hands 12 and minute 14 from a minute wheel cooperating with the second wheel via a wheel of average not shown. The second wheel and the minute wheel form another wheel.

Finally, to complete the chronograph function, the second hand 20 and minute hand 18 are driven in a conventional manner, respectively at a rate of one revolution per minute and one revolution per hour, without which it needs to be detailed. Of course, the display of the minutes of the timed time realized by the minute hand 18 can be replaced by a display of the timed time.

In the preferred embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 1, the needle 16 can read the tenths of a second by taking a turn in 10 seconds. The needle 18 performs one revolution in one hour and reads the minutes of the timed time. The needle 20 performs one revolution in one minute and reads the seconds of the timed time. This display combination, with this frequency of the regulating organ, offers a very great ease of reading the timed time, as well as a perfect precision to read times to the tenth of a second.

Thus, in FIG. 1a, the hands of the current time display 10h10min, while the chronograph is stopped. In fig. 1b, the hands of the current time display 10h10min6s, while the chronograph indicates 6s0, the needle 20 indicating 6 seconds and the needle 16 indicating 0 tenth. In fig. 1c, the hands of the current time display 10h12min27s, while the chronograph indicates 2min27s3, as indicated respectively by the hands 18, 20 and 16. For the reading of seconds, the needle 20 can read very easily tens of seconds , the user directly completing the reading with the information given by the needle 16, which gives the unity of the second and the tenths. The information appears directly to the user, with reference to their respective scale.

Figs. 3 and 4 show examples in which, respectively, the needle 16 would perform a revolution in 6 seconds or 12 seconds. The times and times displayed correspond to those in fig. 1. Thus, for the figures indexed a, the hands of the current time display 10h10min, while the chronograph is stopped. In the figures indexed b, the hands of the current time display 10h10min6s, while the chronograph indicates 6s0. In the figures indexed c, the hands of the current time display 10h12min27s, while the chronograph indicates 2min27s3.

It can be seen that when the needle 16 has made more than one turn, the correspondence between the information displayed by the needle 16 and the needle 20 is much less easy than for the preferred embodiment. Indeed, it is necessary that the user estimates the number of seconds with the needle 20, that it calculates the number of whole turn done by the needle 16, that it determines exactly the number of seconds of the timed time, before read the tenths of a second. For example, in fig. 3c, the needle 20 is between 25 and 30. The needle 16 performing one revolution in 6 seconds, so it performed 4 full turns, corresponding to 24 seconds. The needle 16 indicates 3s, which must be added to the 24 seconds calculated previously, to determine that the timed time indicates 27 seconds. The 3 tenths can then be read with the needle 16.

The same reasoning can be done with FIG. 4c. The needle 20 is between 25 and 30. The needle 16 performing a lap in 12 seconds, so it performed 2 complete rounds, corresponding to 24 seconds. The needle 16 indicates 3s (the indexes being common to the hour turn), which must be added to the 24 seconds calculated previously, to determine that the time measured indicates 27 seconds. The 3 tenths can then be read with the needle 16.

It can therefore be seen that the combination of the information given in the preferred embodiment, allows a fast, accurate and intuitive reading of the timed time, unlike the examples given in FIGS. 3 and 4.

The present description has been made with reference essentially to a workpiece with a second lightning hand in the center and a small second hand current. It goes without saying that other embodiments are possible without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the claims. Thus, for example, the flashing second hand 16 can be placed at 9 o'clock and replaced, in the center, by the second second hand 22. In addition, the timepiece according to the invention can do not include a chronograph mechanism as provided in the claims.

Claims (6)

1. Mechanical timepiece with a lightning second hand (16), comprising - a barrel, A first gear driven by the barrel and comprising a minute wheel and a second wheel, - an escapement actuated by the gear train, A regulating organ whose oscillations are maintained by said escapement, which comprises an escape wheel engaged with the second wheel, A second wheel whose first wheel is mounted on the shaft of the escape wheel and whose last wheel (48) is mounted on the shaft carrying the lightning second hand (16), characterized in that said second wheel is arranged so that the jumping second hand performs, in jumps, a lap in 10 seconds. 2. Timepiece according to claim 1, characterized in that the regulating member oscillates at the frequency of 5 Hz, the jumping seconds hand (16) thus performing 1 revolution in 10 seconds, at the rate of 10 jumps per second. second. 3. Timepiece according to one of claims 1 to 2, characterized in that the last mobile (48) of the second wheel is concentric with said minute wheel. 4. chronograph function timepiece according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that one of the intermediate wheels (40) of the second wheel is mounted on a rocker (42) manually operable and likely to occupy a position for which said intermediate mobile (40) meshes with said last mobile (48) and a position for which the intermediate mobile does not act on the last mobile. 5. A timepiece provided with a chronograph mechanism and a second striking mechanism, whose start, stop and reset are coupled to those of the chronograph, characterized in that the second striking mechanism includes a second lightning hand (16) capable of making one turn in 10 seconds, at 10 jumps per second, to read the tenths of seconds of the time timed and in that the chronograph mechanism comprises a second hand (18 ) able to take a turn in one hour to read the minutes of the timed time and a third hand (20) capable of performing a lap in one minute to read the seconds of the timed time. 6. Timepiece according to claim 5, characterized in that said lightning second hand (16) is arranged next to a graduation for reading the unit of seconds of the timed time and in that the third hand ( 20) is arranged next to a graduation for reading the ten seconds of the timed time.