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
  • G04B45/00—Time pieces of which the indicating means or cases provoke special effects, e.g. aesthetic effects
  • G04B45/0023—Inscriptions or pictures moved by the clockwork, e.g. for advertising
• • 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
  • G04B19/06—Dials
  • G04B19/16—Shiftable dials, e.g. indicating alternately from 1 to 12 and from 13 to 24

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a display mechanism of a watch, in particular a timepiece incorporating a mechanical movement, which by its originality differs from the analog displays or mixed displays common.
• Such displays generally give the indication of time by the movement of hands on a dial divided by a scale, by indexes or by any other sign of identification.
• the most common of these landmarks consist of dashes or dots, often associated with Arabic or Roman numerals. These are guilloche, reported or painted on the dial of the watch.
• the object of the present invention is to provide a watch, in particular a mechanical watch, with an original display providing an unusual and attractive effect.
• the proposed display system excludes the use of an hour hand and substitutes the latter to a system for identifying the hour digit by pivoting the marks indicating the hours.
• the indication of the minutes is conserved by the traditional use of a minute hand.
• this device will have only one needle, namely that of the minutes, if we discard the employment however not excluded a second hand.
• the subject of the invention is a system for displaying a watch whose movement makes it possible to drive a roadway at the end of which is fixed an indicator member making one turn per hour above the dial.
• the latter has twelve or twenty-four markers arranged in a circle, indicating the main divisions of time, namely the hours.
• the display is characterized in that these marks are each associated with a driven insulated gear, simultaneously with one of the two adjacent gears, by meshing with a toothed sector.
• the pitch diameter of this toothed sector being equal to half the number of marks multiplied by the pitch diameter of the pinion.
• Each of these gears has an even number of teeth.
• the toothed sector is rotated by an angular value equal to one turn divided by the number of marks. This rotation is performed around the road by a control means itself driven by the rotation of the roadway.
• the toothed sector is associated with a ratchet wheel, at least one member provided with a ratchet toothing.
• this wheel or this member forms, with the toothed sector, a ring in which the toothing of this sector takes place at the outer periphery of this ring while the ratchet toothing is cut at its inner edge.
• the hour markers preferably consist of twelve Arabic numerals corresponding to twelve hours of the dial of the watch.
• the pinions associated with these figures will advantageously be Maltese crosses that can slide against an outer surface of smooth revolution, formed by the 360 ° complement of the toothed sector on said crown. As a result, all Maltese crosses lying outside the toothed sector are advantageously blocked by the support against this surface which, for the latter, also constitutes a sliding surface.
• the arrangement of such a ring bearing against a plurality of Maltese crosses, regularly arranged on its outer diameter, keeps the crown in a position allowing only its rotation around its center.
• the free space surrounded by this ring can advantageously be exploited and used for the arrangement of the control means of the display mechanism.
• this control means comprises a cam mounted in rotation on the floor of the minute hand.
• This cam is read by a finger located at a first end of a lever arm which comprises, at its second end, a pawl for angularly moving the ratchet wheel by means of a spring. The latter exerts on the lever arm a force antagonistic to that generated by the movement of the cam.
• this display system makes it possible to rotate two consecutive digits of the dial of the watch simultaneously by half a turn, when the carriageway, to which the minute hand is attached, is in an angular position such that this needle points in the direction of the number 12, or even the number 24, of the dial.
• the simultaneous pivoting of these two consecutive digits can take place instantaneously, at least in a very short time interval. This is made possible by the progressive accumulation of a potential energy in the spring of the mechanism, during each turn of the minute hand, namely for 60 minutes. This energy is then released suddenly by the cam, in particular by an instantaneous jump cam, to be used for partial rotation of the Maltese crosses through the crown and its toothed sector.
• Figure 1 is a simplified plan view, illustrating the operating principle of the display mechanism housed under the dial plate of a wristwatch or under the movement of the watch.
• Figure 2 is a simplified view of the dressing of the same watch, such as a person would see it by wearing it normally on his wrist.
• Figure 3 is a detail view of Figure 1, illustrating the control means of the display device.
• the first of them represents a mechanism or system for displaying a watch, as it would appear to an observer having previously removed the ice, the minute hand 1, as well as the dial. 2 of the watch. If necessary, it will be understood that the seconds hand has also been removed.
• the timepiece illustrated in these figures refers to a wristwatch.
• the latter comprises a winding crown 3, arranged to the right of the watch case 4, as is generally the case when such a watch is held at the place or worn normally on the wrist.
• the dial 2 as shown in Figure 2, comprises twelve benchmarks 5 indicators of the main divisions of time, namely the twelve hours of half a day.
• these marks are arranged in a circle near the inner edge 8 of the bezel 9 of the watch case. They are illustrated by Arabic numerals, preferably arranged on a support 6.
• the latter may be constituted for example by a transparent disk-shaped plate.
• the needle 1 is nothing more than a common indicator organ, intended to perform a turn every 60 minutes above the dial.
• Each mark 5 is associated with an isolated pinion 20 and driven simultaneously with one of its two adjacent pinions 20 '.
• the reference numeral 20 ' is used here only in a relative manner to designate the gear adjacent to that bearing the reference numeral 20.
• the simultaneous driving of the two gears is obtained by meshing them with a toothed sector 30.
• a toothed sector 30 In order to make it better visible in FIG. 1, the edges of this sector which delimit its angular aperture have been represented in broken lines.
• Each pinion 20 comprises an even number of teeth.
• the toothed sector 30 is rotated by an angle ⁇ of 30 ° around the roadway 10.
• This drive is effected by a control means 40, itself driven by the rotation of the roadway.
• the pitch step of 30 ° of the toothed sector corresponds to the angular value separating two consecutive marks 5, this taking the roadway 10 as a reference center.
• the toothed sector 30 is associated with a ratchet toothing 41 or a member provided with a non-return device incorporating for example such a toothing.
• the toothed sector 30 is not an isolated sector but constitutes a portion of a mobile, in particular a mobile whose outer surface of revolution 32 is smooth and corresponds to the complement 360 of this sector.
• the toothed sector 30 and the ratchet teeth 41 are in the form of a ring 45. This ring is provided at its inner edge with the ratchet tooth 41 and at its outer periphery. the teeth of the toothed sector 30 as well as the outer surface of revolution 32.
• the pinions 20 associated with the pins 5 are intended to come into contact with the outer surface of revolution 32 when they are not in engagement with the toothed sector 30. Furthermore, these pinions are advantageously provided with teeth with curved heads so as to able to slide against the smooth surface 32 without rotating around their pivot 22. Therefore, all the gears located outside the toothed sector 30 are locked in rotation by their support against the outer surface of revolution 32.
• the latter corresponds to the tread of a wheel but in the present case, the use is made as a sliding surface for the heads 21 of the gears 20. It will be noted that the gears which are in partial engagement with the toothed sector 30, are also blocked by the teeth of the latter. Thus, the rotation of all the pinions 20 is completely enslaved by the rotation of the ring 45.
• the radius of curvature which gives the concave shape to each tooth head of these gears corresponds in FIG. 1 to that of the sliding surface of the crown 45.
• this radius could be slightly more pronounced so as to further reduce the friction between the head and the sliding band of the crown.
• Another way to reduce this friction could be to cut this sliding strip in a slightly conical shape, so that the outer surface of revolution 32 corresponds to that of a truncated cone.
• such a sliding surface could also be slightly convex, for example in the image of that of a spherical segment.
• the Maltese crosses 20 each consist of four branches so as to be able to turn around their pivot 22 by an angle of 90 ° per tooth pitch of the toothed sector.
• this sector toothed will need to count exactly four teeth 31 arranged on a pitch diameter equal to 6 times that of each Maltese cross.
• the ratio of 1 to 6 between the pitch diameter of the toothed sector and that of each Maltese cross results from the relationship existing between the angular values of the successive rotations of these two members, namely 30 ° and 180 ° respectively.
• the ratio of the primitive diameters of the Maltese crosses 20 and that of the toothed sector 30 should be from 1 to 12 since for a 15 ° pitch step of the toothed sector, namely 360 ° divided by 24 hours, the rotation of the Maltese crosses must be kept half-turn.
• the ratio of proportionality between the pitch diameters 20 of the gears 20 and that of the toothed sector 30 is equal to half the number of marks 5 indicating the hours. This ratio corresponds to the division factor which makes it possible to obtain the original diameter of the Maltese crosses from that of the toothed sector.
• control means 40 will now be described with reference to FIG. 3 which is a detail view of FIG. 1.
• the control means 40 comprises a cam 42 mounted without slipping on the roadway 10.
• This cam is more particularly an instantaneous jump cam allowing the partial rotation of the toothed sector 30 in a time interval as short as possible.
• the contour of the cam 42 is traversed by a reading finger 43 located at a first end of a lever arm 44.
• the latter is pivotally mounted about a pivot 46.
• a pawl 47 intended to engage with the ratchet teeth 41.
• the angular displacement of the member provided with the ratchet teeth, in this case the ring 45, is obtained by the concurrence of a spring 48 exerting, on the lever arm 44, a force antagonistic to that generated by the movement
• the spring is preferably constituted by an elastic tongue whose one end is fixed while the free end bears against the back of the reading finger 43.
• the elastic tongue it would also be possible to substitute the elastic tongue by another type of spring, for example a coil spring whose one end is fixed and disposed in the upper half of Figure 3, while the other end would be connected to the lever arm 44, preferably near the pawl 47.
• a not shown spring will also be arranged to exert, on the pawl 47, a torque in the opposite direction to that of the needles of a ratchet. shows.
• the markers 5, indicating the hours are each associated with a sign 7 marking their rotation.
• This sign 7 may be alternately concealed or made apparent to the surface of the dial 2 according to the rotations applied to the Maltese cross with which it is associated. The retraction of this sign can be obtained simply, for example by passing a portion of the support 6 behind the edge of the bezel 9 as well illustrated in Figures 1 and 2.
• Such a sign 7 will preferably be affixed to the support
• this sign is represented in the form of a circle or a point aligned with the radius coming from the roadway 10 and passing through the pivot
• this sign 7 facilitates the identification of the indicator numeral of the current time, namely the number corresponding to the only marker 5 which is turned in the place while all the others are at the same time. 'towards.
• Reading the time at a given time is easily done by first identifying the digit whose sign 7 is apparent.
• the minute indication is obtained by reading the divisions indicated by the needle 1 in relation to one or the other of the marks 5 and, where appropriate, with other complementary marks corresponding to divisions of time. even finer.
• the display as described in this presentation is not limited to mechanical movement watches but could also equip any other type of timepiece, for example a watch powered by an electric battery.

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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Electromechanical Clocks (AREA)
• Transmission Devices (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

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• 2008
  • 2008-11-24 FR FR0806590A patent/FR2938937B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2009
  • 2009-11-20 WO PCT/IB2009/055202 patent/WO2010058367A1/fr active Application Filing
  • 2009-11-20 EP EP09764087A patent/EP2359198B1/de active Active

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