EP1631864A1

EP1631864A1 - Date indicating mechanism for timepiece

Info

Publication number: EP1631864A1
Application number: EP04727810A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Frédéric Crettex
Original assignee: Crettex Frederic
Current assignee: Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier SA
Priority date: 2003-04-25
Filing date: 2004-04-16
Publication date: 2006-03-08
Anticipated expiration: 2024-04-16
Also published as: US20060245302A1; CN1781061A; JP4428718B2; HK1091664A1; KR20060013643A; WO2004097535A1; CN100468232C; EP1471396A1; EP1631864B1; US7184369B2; DE602004028931D1; JP2006524801A; ATE479924T1

Abstract

The mechanism has a date indicator with a series of dates from 1 to 31. An aperture (15) is sized to indicate seven dates according to seven days of a week registered in a dial. A date corrector has a series of dates from 1 to 6 to be partially superimposed on the date indicator. A needle (16) is pointed towards the aperture to indicate a date corresponding to the day of the week.

Description

QUANTITY INDICATOR MECHANISM FOR WATCH MOVEMENT

The present invention relates to timepieces with date display. It relates, more particularly, to a mechanism indicating the date and the day of the week intended to equip a watch movement.

It is common in mechanical and electromechanical watches to display the date (1 to 31) and the day of the week (Monday to Sunday) by means of hands moving on the dial or of discs rotating under the dial in revealing their indications through counters.

Generally, only the calendar and the corresponding day are visible each day. However, it may be interesting to provide more to the wearer of the watch, for example, as offered by a calendar, the dates and the days over a period of one week.

US Patent 3,811,266 provides a solution to meet this wish. However, the reconciliation of the date and the day, necessary at the end of the months of less than 31 days, must be carried out manually. The object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism making automatic the matching of the date and the day.

More precisely, according to a first embodiment, the invention relates to a mechanism indicating the date and the day, intended to equip a timepiece movement whose dial is pierced with a window. It comprises :

- a date indicator carrying the series of dates from 1 to 31, said window being dimensioned so as to reveal seven calendars opposite which are indicated, on the dial, the indications of the seven days of the week; - the first means of making the date indicator perform a shift of seven days each Sunday around midnight;

- a date corrector carrying the series of dates from 1 to 6 and arranged so as to be able to be partially superimposed on the date indicator; and

- second means of making the date corrector make movements which allow him to automatically hide, at the end of the months of less than 31 days, the inaccurate dates and replace them with his own.

In this embodiment, the mechanism further comprises a hand intended to show the date of the day, said first means being arranged to cause this hand to perform a day advance each evening around midnight. According to a second embodiment, the invention relates to a mechanism indicating the date and the day, intended to equip a timepiece movement whose dial is pierced with a window. It comprises :

- a date indicator bringing the series of dates from 1 to 31; - a day indicator placed next to the date indicator and carrying the indications of the seven days of the week, said window being dimensioned so as to reveal seven calendars and seven days of the week;

- the first means of making these two indicators perform, each evening around midnight, a displacement of a position;

- second means for making the date corrector make displacements which allow it to hide automatically, at the end of months of less than 31 days, inaccurate dates and replace them with his own.

Other characteristics of the invention will emerge from the description which follows, given with reference to the appended drawing, in which: - Figures 1 and 2 are schematic overall views of a timepiece fitted with the first embodiment of the mechanism according to the invention;

- Figures 3 to 7 show this mechanism in different from its most significant states; - Figure 8 is an overview of a timepiece with the second embodiment of the mechanism; and

- Figure 9 illustrates how the indicator members of Figure 8 can be driven electronically.

The timepiece shown schematically in Figures 1 and 2 is intended to display, on a dial 10, the hour, the minute and the second of the current time, but also the calendar and the month.

The hour and minute are displayed in the center of the room respectively by large hands 11 and 12, while the second is displayed, at the 6 o'clock position, by a small hand 13. The month is displayed using '' a disc appearing behind a window 14 at the 3 o'clock position. These functions will not be described since they are performed in a conventional manner and are not the subject of the invention.

We will therefore focus mainly on the display of the date which, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, is provided through a window 15 in an arc of a concentric circle with the hands 11 and 12, arranged at 9 o'clock. This window reveals seven calendars opposite which are inscribed, on the dial, from bottom to top, the indications of the seven days of the week. A hand 16, also concentric with hands 11 and 12 and pointing towards the window 15, is used to designate the date of each day of the week. The peculiarity of this timepiece resides in the mechanism making it possible to automatically display each day, in the window 15, with the help of the hand 16, the correct date opposite the correct day of the week, that the month in progress either 31, 30, 29 or 28 days. Figure 2 shows, for example, the condition of the coin on February 29 of a leap year.

Reference will now be made to FIGS. 3 to 7 which schematically represent, according to different configurations, the constituent members of the mechanism equipping the part of FIGS. 1 and 2. It forms a module arranged on a conventional movement and coupled to it according to any well-known technique of the skilled person.

The figures show a date indicator 17 constituted, in a known manner, by a disc crown whose upper face carries the thirty-one dates visible in series of seven through the window 15 opposite the series of seven days of the week. The internal part of the crown 17 is provided with thirty-one teeth serving, on the one hand, for its drive by means which will be described and, on the other hand, for its positioning by a conventional jumper not shown.

The mechanism comprises a twenty-four hour wheel 18 driven counter-clockwise (hereinafter, SIAM), at the rate of one revolution per day, from the hour wheel of the movement. The wheel 18 carries, on the top, a stud 19 meshing with a star of thirty-one 20 disposed at the center of the movement and whose pinion 21 carries the date indicator needle 16. The star 20 carries, on its underside, a pad 22 whose role will appear later. The pinion 21 meshes with a first rack 23 forming the end of an arm 24 which pivots about an axis 25. When the arm pivots in the SIAM, it loads a spring 26. The other end of this arm is provided a second rack 27 which meshes with a ratchet clutch mobile 28, of a type well known to those skilled in the art, cooperating with the internal toothing of the date indicator 17. The rack 27 has no effect on this mobile when it pivots in the SIAM but, when it rotates clockwise (hereinafter, SAM), it drives it so as to advance the indicator 17 in the SIAM.

A pawl 29, acting under the effect of a spring 30, serves to prevent, by one of its ends, that the star of thirty-one 20 rotates in the SIAM. The other end of this pawl is provided with a notch in which a stud 31 takes place. The latter is fixed to one end of a pivoting lever 32, the other end of which is arranged so as to be in the path of the pad 22 equipping the star with thirty-one 20. The lever 32 is subjected to the action of a spring 33 which tends to bring its free end towards the center of the movement.

In operation, the mechanism is, in the night from Sunday to Monday, after the midnight jump, in the position illustrated in Figure 3 for the week from Monday 7 to Sunday 13. The hand 16 is then pointed to the date Monday. Each of the following evenings, around midnight, the stud 19 will then advance by one position the star of thirty-one 20, with its stud 22 and its needle 16 which, thus, on Sunday evening, will be pointed around 13, as shown in Figure 4.

During the whole week, the first rack 23 has therefore also progressed in the SIAM, charging its spring 26, while the stud 22 has moved closer to the end of the lever 32. The second rack 27 has also progressed in the same direction but, as already mentioned, due to the presence of the clutch mobile 28, it had no effect on the date indicator 17 which therefore remained stationary. As an indication, figure 5 shows the state of the mechanism on Thursday.

Every Sunday evening, when the stud 19 advances the mechanism by one position, the stud 22 lifts the end of the lever 32, the stud 31 which removes the pawl 29 from the star of thirty-one 20. That -this, actuated by the rack 23 subjected to the spring 26, quickly returns, in the SAM, with its needle 16, to the initial position of Monday morning, represented in FIG. 3. At this instant, the hand 16 again indicates Monday and the first of the seven new visible dates of the week which begins. A new seven-day cycle then begins, identical to the one just described.

The mechanism would be perfect if every month had 31 days. As this is not the case, the date indicated by hand 16 will not be correct for months less than 31 days. So, for example, for a 30-day month ending on a Thursday, the calendar at the Friday position will be 31, when it should be 1.

A solution that immediately comes to mind to resolve this problem is to act on the date indicator 17 using a manual correction mechanism, well known to those skilled in the art, by which the indicator is advanced 3, 2 or 1 steps respectively at the end of the 29, 28 or 30 day months. This solution allows, of course, to restore the concordance for the remaining days of the week, but it is then the past days which no longer display the correct calendar.

The mechanism according to the present invention provides a solution to the problem by making it possible to automatically establish perfect agreement, at the end of the months of less than 31 days, between the indication of the day and that of the date. For this purpose, the mechanism uses a corrector 34 in the form of a disk crown sector 34 centered on the movement, with the same radius as the indicator 17. It carries, on its left side, the series of the date of 1 to 6 and is dimensioned so as to be superimposed exactly on the indicator 17 in order to hide the inaccurate dates and replace them with his own. The sector 34 has, inwardly, a toothing used for its drive.

For reasons which will appear later, the corrector 34 is, in its initial state, illustrated by FIGS. 3 and 4, offset by 3 positions with respect to the last date appearing in the window 15. According to the embodiment described, a first manual initialization, carried out before Sunday evening which precedes the end of a month of less than 31 days, enables the corrector 34 to be brought closer to the last of the dates visible in the window 15. This initialization is 1 position for 30-day months, 2 positions for 29-day months and 3 positions for 28-day months. In other words, the date 1 of the corrector is brought to 2, 1 and 0 positions respectively at the end of the 30, 29 and 28 day months.

A second initialization must be carried out, advantageously at the same time as the first, in order to advance the date indicator 17 by 1, 2 or 3 positions respectively for the months of 30, 29 days and 28 days.

Figures 3 and 4 show the mechanism before the two initializations. These being carried out, the mechanism according to the invention must therefore, at the start of the last week of the months of less than 31 days, that is to say when switching from Sunday to Monday, allow the correction sector 34 of a number of positions which depends on the date of Monday between 23 and 30. This number is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 depending on whether the last Monday is, respectively on 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30. The mechanism must also, of course, automatically return the corrector 34 to its initial state the following Sunday evening. To allow these movements to be carried out, the mechanism has, as a starting point, the internal toothing of the date indicator 17 which, via two mobiles 35 and 36, meshes with an associated wheel 37, above d 'her, to a star of thirty-one 38. This has the particularity of having only eight of the thirty-one teeth that it should normally have, normally distributed over a sector 39 of approximately 93 ° and corresponding to operations to be carried out between the 23rd and the 30th of the months of less than 31 days. The rest of the circumference of the star is smooth.

The sector with eight teeth 39 meshes with a pinion 40 whose circumference is equal to the length of the arc of a circle of sector 39, which is positioned so as to attack the pinion at the start of the 23rd of the month. This pinion is associated with a wheel of eight teeth 41 held in place by means of a jumper 42 and meshing with a corrective wheel 43 which has the particularity of having a sector of nine notches 44 with a spacing corresponding to that of the teeth of the wheel 41. Three of these notches, bearing the references ni, n2 and n3, correspond to the corrections to be made at the end of the months of 30, 29 and 28 days, while the other six, bearing the references n4 to n9, are used to correct the days. The rest of the periphery of the corrective wheel 43 is free of teeth.

The wheel 43 is associated, below it, with a wheel 45 meshing, by means of two mobiles 46 and 47, with the internal toothing of the correction sector 34.

The wheel 45 meshes with a rack 48 forming the end of an arm which pivots around an axis 49. When the pivoting takes place in the SAM, it loads a spring 50. A seven-day star 51 is driven, at the rate of one revolution per week, by a finger 19 'worn, like the stud 19, by the twenty-four hour wheel 18. This star has a tooth 52 which acts on a pawl 53 allowing the rotation of the wheel 45, in SIAM, under the action of spring 50, every Sunday around midnight. A barrel 54 is engaged with the internal toothing of the date indicator 17 on which it acts only when it rotates in the SIAM. It is associated with a retaining pawl 55, subjected to the thrust of a spring 56 and actuated by a tooth 57 formed inside the right part of the corrector 34.

Finally, manual correction means, not shown in the drawing so as not to clutter it, but which the skilled person knows well, make it possible to act simultaneously on the corrective wheel 43 and on the barrel 54 in order to make them perform , respectively in the SIAM and the SAM, 3, 2 and 1 not respectively before the end of the months of 28, 29 and 30 days. These corrections correspond to the respective initializations of the corrector 34 and of the indicator 17, mentioned above. The operation of the mechanism which automatically ensures the correct positioning of the corrector 34 will be described with more reference to Figures 5, 6 and 7 which relate respectively to Thursday 30 of a month of 30 days, Monday 20 of a month from February to 28 days and Monday 27 of a month from February to 28 days.

When at the time of the passage from 22 to 23 of the 31-day months, the eight-tooth sector 39 attacks the pinion 40, the eight-tooth wheel 41 which is associated with it turns in a vacuum because the corrective wheel 43 does not present it its sector with nine notches 44. The corrector 34 will therefore remain stationary during the transition from 31 to 1 ^st .

This will be so as long as no position initialization has been carried out by the wearer of the watch during the month in order to prepare for a month of less than 31 days the corrector 34 and the barrel 54.

If the double position initialization has been carried out, for example, for a month of 30 days, the corrective wheel 43 has advanced by one position in the SIAM. Sunday evening, at the time of the jump of 7 positions of the indicator 17, the notch n2 of the wheel 43 and the following ones can thus mesh with the eight-toothed wheel 41. All will then be determined by the date of Monday which follows.

According to the arrangements described above, if Monday is 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 or 30, the corrective wheel 43 will advance by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 positions respectively , thereby advancing the corrector 34 by the same number of positions in order to mask the erroneous dates displayed by the indicator 17 and replace them with a correct indication of the date.

The same sequence of movements is carried out for the months of 29 and 28 days, after the manual initialization has advanced the corrective wheel 43 by 2 or 3 positions.

Of course, the operations which have just been described require that they be preceded, on Sunday evening, by a return of the corrector 34 to its initial state, shifted by 3 positions relative to the last date appearing in the window 15. This return to the initial state is triggered by the seven-day star 51 whose tooth 52 lifts the pawl 53, thereby releasing the wheel 45. The latter, actuated by the rack 48 subjected to the spring 50, then returns quickly, in the SIAM, to its starting position. The corrective wheel 43, which is associated with it, acting by means of the mobiles 46 and 47, thus also makes the corrector 34 return to its initial state.

When the corrector 34 disappears to return to its initial position, the pawl 55 which, until then, immobilized the barrel 54, is lifted by the tooth 57. The barrel is then released and causes the indicator 17 to perform a advance of 1, 2 or 3 positions depending on whether it is a month of 30, 29 or 28 days.

Thus, a date indicator mechanism is proposed which automatically displays, from Monday to Sunday, the dates of the 7 days of the week opposite the corresponding day, whether the month is 31, 30, 29 or 28 days. The present description has been made with reference to a fixed indication of the days of the week, from Monday to Sunday, and to a date indicator performing jumps of 7 positions, the date being shown by a hand.

It goes without saying, however, that without departing from the scope of the invention, the mechanism could, as illustrated in FIG. 8, while keeping the principle of a day-date display over 7 days, have a day indicator and a date indicator advancing each day by a position, both visible behind the window 15, the correct day-date pair being always that of the bottom of the scale without the need to show it by a hand.

The posting could also be done over two weeks or, more generally, n days. In this case, the corrector should include the dates from 1 to n-1.

The invention has just been described in a mechanical embodiment, but it is obvious that the functions of the mechanism could also be carried out electronically, as illustrated, for example, in FIG. 9.

In this case, according to an embodiment corresponding, for example, to that of FIG. 8, the date indicator 17 is surrounded by a crown disc 58 whose upper face carries four series of indications of the seven days of the week, both visible through the window 15. The corrector 34 then takes the form of a disc sector centered on the movement. These three members are respectively driven in rotation by three stepping motors 59, 60 and 61 which are controlled by a microprocessor (not shown) appropriately programmed by the skilled person in order, on the one hand, to advance each evening of a position the date indicator 17 and the day indicator 58 and, on the other hand, to position the corrector 34 so that at the end of the months of less than 31 days, it hides the inaccurate dates and replaces them with his own.

Claims

1. Date and date indicator mechanism, intended to equip a timepiece movement whose dial (10) is pierced with a window (15), characterized in that it comprises: - a date indicator ( 17) bearing the series of the date of

1 to 31, said window being dimensioned so as to reveal seven calendars opposite which are written, on the dial, the indications of the seven days of the week;

- the first means of causing the date indicator, every Sunday around midnight, to travel for seven days;

- a date corrector (34) carrying the series of dates from 1 to 6 and arranged so as to be able to be partially superimposed on the date indicator; and - second means of making the date corrector make movements which allow him to automatically hide, at the end of the months of less than 31 days, the inaccurate dates and replace them with his own.

2. Mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises a needle (16) intended to show the date of the day, and in that said first means are arranged to have this needle perform each evening around midnight, one day ahead.

3. Date and date indicator mechanism, intended to equip a timepiece movement whose dial (10) is pierced with a window (15), characterized in that it comprises:

- a date indicator (17) carrying the series of dates from 1 to 31;

- a day indicator placed next to the date indicator and carrying the indications of the seven days of the week, said window being dimensioned so as to reveal seven calendars and seven days of the week; - the first means of making these two indicators perform, each evening around midnight, a displacement of a position;

- a date corrector (34) carrying the series of dates from 1 to 6 and arranged so as to be able to be partially superimposed on the date indicator; and

4. Mechanism according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said means are purely mechanical.

5. Mechanism according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said means are electromechanical.