Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G04—HOROLOGY
  • G04B—MECHANICALLY-DRIVEN CLOCKS OR WATCHES; MECHANICAL PARTS OF CLOCKS OR WATCHES IN GENERAL; TIME PIECES USING THE POSITION OF THE SUN, MOON OR STARS
  • G04B19/00—Indicating the time by visual means
  • G04B19/22—Arrangements for indicating different local apparent times; Universal time pieces
  • G04B19/223—Arrangements for indicating different local apparent times; Universal time pieces with rotary disc, rotary bezel, or rotary dial

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a universal timepiece and, more particularly, to a timepiece that enables a user to grasp the present time of global
• the time is as early as "15/longitude". For example, when the Greenwich Astronomical Observatory is at noon, Baghdad and Tokyo positioned in the east therefrom are at 3 o'clock p.m. and 9 o'clock p.m., respectively. And when the Greenwich Astronomical Observatory is at noon, New York and Sydney positioned in the west therefrom are at 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. the day before, respectively. With the rapid advance of traffic and communication in the present time, an opportunity of world tour is increasing. Global interchange becomes frequent by virtue of telephone or Internet. As a result, there is an increasing need for grasping correct time of each city in the world.
• Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 3-287092 discloses a clock adopting a 24- hour scheme using a disk-shaped hour hand, in which names of chief cities in the
• a clock according to the above present enables a user to grasp the present times of chief places in the world but has a slight difficulty in the user interface, unlike a conventional clock (having an hour hand and a minute hand). That is, a glance of the user is not enough to catch whether it is the time of earlier or later date and the disk-shaped plate having the names of the major cities serves as an hour hand.
• the present invention provides a portable universal timepiece enabling a user to directly grasp local time of chief cities or regions in the world, an altitude of the sun, and whether a date is changed or not.
• the universal timepiece includes a circular base plate in which 24 division indexes are displayed with the same angle around a center of the timepiece, an hour hand rotated once for 24 hours, and a region plate where names of regions in the world or symbols of the names and a date boundary line are displayed at a relative position on a circumference of the timepiece.
• the base plate is divided into an upper half part and a lower half part by a color or a line.
• a symbol symbolizing noon is displayed on a top of the upper half part, and a symbol
• the region plate is formed at an inside or outside of the base plate with a concentric circle.
• the timepiece further includes a minute hand rotated once for an hour, and a second hand rotated once for a minute.
• the base plate is fixed and has 24 indexes that are equivalently divided around a circumference of the universal timepiece.
• the hour hand is rotated once for a day (24 hours). Time is read by the same manner as a conventional manner.
• the "12 o'clock direction” means a direction indicated at 12 o'clock by an hour hand of the conventional clock. Further, “upper half part”, “lower half part”, “top”, “base”, “over”, “under”, “inside”, and “outside” indicate relative positions on a top plan view where the 12 o'clock direction is in an upper clock.
• the universal timepiece further includes the minute hand
• 4 or 12 minute division indexes are preferably made at an inside of each hour division index so as to enhance readability of the minute.
• numbers "0, 15, 30, and 45" or "0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50" may be made to display a minute.
• the upper and lower half parts of the base plate are preferably divided by different colors or lines on the basis of a virtual line that passes an index corresponding to 6 a.m. and an index corresponding to 6 p.m., which enables a
• boundary line corresponds to a macro-horizon of the timepiece-using region (hereinafter referred to as "the present region”), and an angle between the hour
• the user can grasp a position of the sun.
• a user is in a closed space (e.g., an office or basement of a large building, subway, submarine, etc.), the above function enables him/her to intuitively perceive a position of the sun or whether the sun rises or sets.
• a closed space e.g., an office or basement of a large building, subway, submarine, etc.
• a symbol symbolizing noon is preferably marked on a top (i.e., an index corresponding to so-called "12 o'clock direction") of the upper half part and a symbol symbolizing p.m. and the International Date Line is preferably marked on a base of the lower half part.
• the region plate is a circular or donut-shaped plate. On the circumference of the region plate, names of chief regions in the world or symbols of the names
• the region plate may be formed at an inside or outside of the base plate. If the region plate is formed at the inside thereof, the region plate is circular. On the other hand, if the region plate is formed at the outside thereof, the region plate is donut- shaped.
• the names may be selected according to frequently used regions or purposes.
• a minus (-) is preferably marked on the left of the International Date Line displayed on the base plate and on the right of the International Date Line displayed on the region plate, when viewed from the center of the universal
• the universal timepiece is divided into two regions by a virtual line drawn by the International Date Line of the base plate and a timepiece central line and a virtual line drawn by the International Date Line of the region plate and the timepiece central line.
• a region corresponding to the minus (- ) marked region is correctly accorded with a west region whose present time is earlier than p.m., which enables the user to grasp an order of the date.
• the rotation direction of the hour and minute hands can be determined at random. If each of the plates is rotated counter-clockwise, numbers for indicating hour and minute are displayed clockwise. On the other hand, if each of the plate is rotated clockwise, the numbers for indicating hour and minute are displayed counter-clockwise.
• the region plate is fixed to set a specific city toward the 12 o'clock direction, it is preferably rotated by a user at random.
• the region plate is usually set to the 12 o'clock direction, but moves toward a direction indicated by the hour hand in order to grasp the present time of other region. In this case, a number displayed on the hour division index coming in touch with each name on
• the minute hand are hour and minute of the present time in the present region, respectively.
• the region plate is
• the universal timepiece may be realized by a mechanical method using a combination of sawteeth having a specific rotation rate with respect to a driving device, as well as by an electronic method or a display device such as a liquid crystal or a monitor.
• the universal timepiece is realized in a computer screen by a software method, it will be very useful for a field of the international enterprise related with the time.
• FIG. 1 is a concept diagram of a universal timepiece according to a prior art.
• FIG. 2 through FIG. 4 are concept diagrams showing the steps of handling a timepiece, based upon local movement, according to the present invention.
• the hour hand seems to be longer than a minute hand in the drawings.
• the minute hand may be longer than the hour hand by suitably adjusting construction units of the
• the region plate is rotated at random to set its position. Once the position of the region plate is set, the region plate is rotated to the same direction and with the same angular speed as the hour hand. A symbol symbolizing the sun is made at the end of the hour hand in order to emphasize a relationship between a horizontal and an altitude of the sun. A line is drawn between indexes 6
• a region plate is rotated to move an index of Seoul onto an extension line of the hour hand (see FIG. 2).
• the time indicated by the hour hand and the minute hand is the present time of a region indicated by the hour hand.
• an hour division index of the base plate corresponding to an index displayed on the region plate, displays o'clock of the present time of each city.
• the present time of Chicago is 7: 10 p.m. and Chicago is located in a minus (-) marked region out of regions divided by the International Date Line. Therefore, the present time of Chicago is 7: 10 p.m., 9th.
• the present time of London is 1 : 10 a.m., 10th.
• a user can directly grasp the present time of chief cities in the world without handlings.
• New York are preferably converged to each other by setting the hour hand (see FIG. 4; a setting device is not shown therein). From the time that the handling is completed, the user can directly grasp the local time (of New York) by reference to the hour hand and the minute hand without being aware of the region plate. Further, the user can intuitively perceive that it is night and the sun will rise in about an hour 20 minutes.
• the universal timepiece enables a user to directly grasp the present time of chief cities in the world and understand a relationship between dates of a specific region and the present region. Further, the universal time piece enables the user to correctly perceive an altitude of the sun in each region of the world.

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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Electromechanical Clocks (AREA)
• Electric Clocks (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=19198289

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (4)

Citations (6)

Family Cites Families (6)

• 2000
  • 2000-10-18 AU AU2000279679A patent/AU2000279679A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2000-10-18 JP JP2002539886A patent/JP2004513351A/ja not_active Withdrawn
  • 2000-10-18 WO PCT/KR2000/001167 patent/WO2002037194A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2000-10-18 EP EP00970279A patent/EP1334409A4/de not_active Withdrawn

Patent Citations (6)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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