EP0961182A1 - Tide indicating timepiece - Google Patents

Abstract

The watch has a movable curved part (3,4), driven by a watch mechanism, and a face having hour indications. The movable part (3) with 31 teeth, is driven by the drive pinion of the crown wheel for date indication.

Description

The present invention relates to the field of tide calculation.

It is well known that the sea undergoes, on the most coasts, two tidal cycles over a period a little more than a day, on average over a period approximately 24 hours and 50 minutes.

Being able to quickly determine the tide height at a given time, or determine when the tide will reach a height minimal.

There are various tools for this, including tables published by hydrographic services, such as SHOM in France, rules presenting means graphic evaluation, periodically updated works day, like "the Breton sailor's almanac". These tools require some mastery to estimate safely the tide height at a given time.

It has also been proposed in the state of the technical, for occasional users, watches with a tide indicator.

French patent FR2666664 describes for example a device allowing using a watch movement classic analog, comprising a dial as well as hour, minute, second hands to indicate tide heights and tidal coefficients. It is consisting of a set of gears whose reports mechanical allow rotation of the tide hand on the additional offset dial, and the needle coefficients on the additional offset dial.

French patent FR2662826 also describes a watch including a tide indicator consists of a tidal grid comprising a curve of semi-diurnal tide with landmarks moving at a constant angular velocity, function of the average period (over a year) of the tide, concentrically to a grid of reading comprising a reading mark determining by its point of intersection with the tide curve, the level of the tide corresponding to the time indicated by watch switch.

Another French patent FR2645977 describes a watch that has a dial with a time scale cooperating with needles intended to be driven by switching a movement on which the module can to be fixed. This dial also has a graduation twenty-four hour circular cooperating simultaneously, on the one hand with a needle rotated by a module mechanism at the rate of one revolution per twenty-four hours and on the other hand with a tidal disc driven in rotation by the module mechanism at the rate of one revolution by lunation.

These different watches combine in one housing two relatively independent mechanisms, one for driving the hour and minute hands, the other for training the tide indicator. Like the two cycles have periodicities which have no simple common denominator it is necessary to multiply components, which increases the manufacturing cost and the complexity of these watches of the prior art.

We also know the Swiss patent CH668884 describing a tide indicator watch with a tide indicator having a tide curve semi-diurnal driven at a constant angular speed determined by the average period over a year of the tide.

Such a watch requires a motor specific watchmaking whose gear ratios are specific to the average tide period in a place given, which implies a manufacturing of mechanisms not standards to fulfill the height calculation function tide.

Swiss patent CH680694, as well as EP629932, CH684454 or GB2050656 patents also describe similar mechanisms, involving the design and manufacture of a specific motor determined by the period of the tide.

The object of the invention is to remedy these disadvantages by proposing an adaptation of motors standard watchmaking, allowing to add a function tide indications without changing the core of a standard motor. To this end, the invention relates in its most general acceptance a tide indicator watch of the type comprising a movable member having a curve having one or more lobes, driven by a clock mechanism and a fixed dial with time indications, characterized in that the organ mobile is driven by the drive pinion of the date indicator crown.

According to a particular embodiment the crown has 31 teeth.

Advantageously, the movable member is concentric with a fixed dial with marks timetables for determining the tide situation at a specific time.

R' désigne le rayon minimal, pour une position angulaire de 0 ou de la valeur maximale d'environ 360°

 désigne la position angulaire à partir d'une valeur initiale.

According to a first variant, the fixed dial extends over approximately 360 ° and has 12 time divisions, and in that the movable member has a substantially sinusoidal unilobed curve whose radius R varies angularly as follows: R = R '+ k.sin / 2 Or :

R 'denotes the minimum radius, for an angular position of 0 or the maximum value of approximately 360 °

 designates the angular position from an initial value.

According to this variant, the movable member is driven by a pinion modified to present 2 times more teeth engrainantes that for the drive of a disc date.

R' désigne le rayon minimal, pour une position angulaire de 0 ou de la valeur maximale d'environ 360°

 désigne la position angulaire à partir d'une valeur initiale.

According to a second variant, the fixed dial extends over approximately 348 ° and has 24 time divisions, and in that the movable member has a substantially sinusoidal bilobed curve whose radius R varies angularly as follows: R = R '+ | k.sin | Or :

R 'denotes the minimum radius, for an angular position of 0 or the maximum value of approximately 360 °

 designates the angular position from an initial value.

Advantageously from the point of view of the technical simplicity, the movable member has 31 teeth for the drive by the datator drive pinion.

Advantageously, from the point of view of the precision, the tide indicator watch according to one ce these variants include a movable member which has 29 teeth for the drive by the drive pinion of the date.

R' désigne le rayon minimal, pour une position angulaire de 0 ou de la valeur maximale d'environ 360°

 désigne la position angulaire à partir d'une valeur initiale.

According to a third variant, the movable member has 49 teeth for driving the date pinion, the fixed dial extends over approximately 232 ° and has 24 time divisions, and in that the movable member has a substantially sinusoidal three-lobed curve whose radius R varies angularly as follows: R = R '+ | k.sin3 / 2 | Or :

R 'denotes the minimum radius, for an angular position of 0 or the maximum value of approximately 360 °

 designates the angular position from an initial value.

According to a fourth variant, the movable member presents 59 teeth for the drive by the date pinion.

R' désigne le rayon minimal, pour une position angulaire de 0 ou de la valeur maximale d'environ 360°

 désigne la position angulaire à partir d'une valeur initiale.

Tide indicator watch characterized in that the fixed dial extends over approximately 174 ° and has 24 time divisions, and in that the movable member has a substantially sinusoidal quadrilobed curve whose radius R varies angularly as follows: R = R '+ | k.sin2 | Or :

R 'denotes the minimum radius, for an angular position of 0 or the maximum value of approximately 360 °

 designates the angular position from an initial value.

La figure 1 représente une vue de face d'une montre selon la première variante ;

La figure 2 représente une vue de face d'une montre selon la deuxième variante ;

La figure 3 représente une vue de face d'une montre selon la troisième variante ;

La figure 4 représente une vue de face d'une montre selon la quatrième variante.

La figure 1 représente une montre selon une première variante de réalisation de l'invention.

The invention will be better understood on reading the description which follows, referring to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 represents a front view of a watch according to the first variant;

FIG. 2 represents a front view of a watch according to the second variant;

FIG. 3 represents a front view of a watch according to the third variant;

FIG. 4 represents a front view of a watch according to the fourth variant.

Figure 1 shows a watch according to a first alternative embodiment of the invention.

The watch has a known mechanism clockwork driving the minute hand (1) and the hour hand (2).

The indication of the tide is carried out by a movable member (3) in the form of a concentric crown with the axes of the needles (1, 2).

This crown (3) has a curve substantially elliptical (4) separating two areas contrasting (5, 6), for example color ranges different. The lobe-shaped area (6) corresponds to the relative tide height.

R'

désigne le rayon minimal, pour une position angulaire de 0 ou de la valeur maximale d'environ 360°



désigne la position angulaire à partir d'une valeur initiale.

The curve (4) is substantially sinusoidal. Its radius R varies angularly as follows: R = R '+ k.sin / 2 Or :

R '

designates the minimum radius, for an angular position of 0 or the maximum value of approximately 360 °



designates the angular position from an initial value.

This crown (3) is placed opposite a dial (7) comprising hour markers. This dial is fixed, i.e. it is not driven by a clock mechanism. Optionally, it is possible to provide a dial whose orientation can be changed manually, to match a time and a known tide height.

The crown (3) is driven by the pinion of the date indicating crown.

It can be the pinion of a mechanism standard watchmaking, normally intended to include a date crown, from which the date crown has been removed to be replaced by the crown (3) indicating tide. It can also be a clock mechanism standard of which the indicator crown of date, and to which a synchronous crown (3) has been added with the date indicator crown.

It can still be a mechanism timepiece designed specifically for a compliant watch the invention, comprising a pinion capable of driving a crown associated with a period of approximately 1 turn per month.

For a model with 31 bilobed teeth, the drift weekly compared to the mean tide period is around 20 min. It results in an error maximum weekly of around 4 °, with regard to reading on the time dial (7).

This error is perfectly acceptable for many reasons :

First of all, such an instrument is intended to an appreciation of the tide situation, more than at one precise calculation to the nearest centimeter.

In addition, the tide height is a data whose evolution is generally sought (tide rising, falling tide, rather than the absolute value).

Finally, many parameters induce a imprecision much greater than the intrinsic imprecision of the invention: this is for example the position of the moon in its orbit, swell, local variations of the time and height of the tide, the geometry of bottoms, and sometimes uncertainty on the port foot of the boat.

For this reason, the invention makes it possible to respond economically to the achievement problem a watch incorporating tide calculation functions, with a solution that is very far from the approach of the skilled person in the watchmaking field, who is required by unavoidable prejudices on the priority to be given the precision of the indications of a clockwork mechanism.

The initial time mapping tide height with tide height can be done as previously indicated by rotation of the dial (7), or else by using the date button, allowing you to modify the position of the movable crown (3).

The use of the watch is as follows:

We start by matching the height tide with the time, at a given time for example by maritime directions or simply by observation of the state of the sea. For that, we put by example in agreement the vertex (8) of the curve (4) with the corresponding time marker, the “11 am and 5 pm” marker minutes ”in the example shown in Figure 1. We can then predict the tide height at one hour given, by appreciation of the radial length ratio of the surface 4 relative to the colored surface (5). Through example, at 5 am, the tide will be low on the example shown in figure 1.

We can also determine the time at which the tide will reach a given value. Always in the example of figure 1, the low tide will be reached at 5 o'clock.

The crown (3) will progress slowly, moving 2/31 of a turn per day.

Figure 2 shows a front view of a shows according to the second variant.

The crown (3) this time has a curve (9) bilobed. The fixed dial no longer has 12, but 24 time indications. These time indications extend not on 360 degrees as in Figure 1, but on 347.776 °.

R' désigne le rayon minimal, pour une position angulaire de 0 ou de la valeur maximale d'environ 360°

 désigne la position angulaire à partir d'une valeur initiale.

The curve is substantially sinusoidal, with a radius R varying angularly as follows: R = R '+ | k.sin | Or :

R 'denotes the minimum radius, for an angular position of 0 or the maximum value of approximately 360 °

 designates the angular position from an initial value.

The crown (3) has 29 teeth of 12.414 °.

This variant reduces the error weekly at 6mn per week.

Figure 3 shows a front view of a shows according to the third variant.

The crown (3) is modified to present 44 8.182 ° teeth. Curve (10) is a three-lobed curve. The dial (7) has 24 time indications extending over 231.85 °.

R' désigne le rayon minimal, pour une position angulaire de 0 ou de la valeur maximale d'environ 360°

 désigne la position angulaire à partir d'une valeur initiale.

The curve (10) is a substantially sinusoidal curve whose radius R varies angularly as follows: R = R '+ | k.sin3 / 2 @ | Or :

R 'denotes the minimum radius, for an angular position of 0 or the maximum value of approximately 360 °

 designates the angular position from an initial value.

Figure 4 shows a front view of a shows according to the fourth variant.

The crown (3) is modified to present 59 6.112 ° teeth. The curve (11) is a quadrilobed curve. The dial (7) has 24 time indications extending over 173.888 °.

R' désigne le rayon minimal, pour une position angulaire de 0 ou de la valeur maximale d'environ 360°

 désigne la position angulaire à partir d'une valeur initiale.

The curve (11) is a substantially sinusoidal curve whose radius R varies angularly as follows: R = R '+ | k.sin2 | Or :

R 'denotes the minimum radius, for an angular position of 0 or the maximum value of approximately 360 °

 designates the angular position from an initial value.

The number of crown teeth (3) is almost double the number of teeth in a crown date indicator. The mechanism doubles the number of teeth a date indicating crown, which for some watch movements, requires minimal evolution.

Claims (11)

Tide indicator watch of the type comprising a movable member (3) having a curve (3, 9, 10, 11), driven by a clockwork mechanism and a dial (7) with time indications, characterized in that the movable member (3) is driven by the pinion of the date indicating crown. Tide indicator watch according to claim 1 characterized in that the movable member has 31 teeth for gear drive training. Tide indicator watch according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that the movable member is concentric with a dial (7) having marks timetables for determining the tide situation at a specific time. Tide indicator watch according to one any of the preceding claims characterized in what the dial (7) including the time indications spans approximately 360 ° and has 12 divisions schedules, and in that the movable member has a curve (3) unilobed. Tide indicator watch according to one any of the preceding claims characterized in what the dial (7) including the time indications extends over around 348 ° and has 24 hour divisions, and in that the movable member has a bilobed curve (9). Tide indicator watch according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the movable member has 29 teeth for training by the date drive pinion. Tide indicator watch according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that the dial (7) with time indications extends over approximately 232 ° and has 24 time divisions, and in that the movable member has a three-lobed curve (10). Tide indicator watch according to claim 7 characterized in that the pinion has 44 teeth for the drive by the date pinion. Tide indicator watch according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that the dial (7) including the time indications extend over approximately 174 ° and has 24 time divisions, and in that the movable member has a quadrilobed curve (11). Tide indicator watch according to claim 9 characterized in that the movable member has 59 teeth for the pinion drive date trainer. Tide indicator watch according to one at less of the preceding claims characterized in that the dial (7) can be rotated to make coincide with a known tide time and tide level.

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