GB2095438A

GB2095438A - Timepiece having an auxiliary indicating member for supplementary data

Info

Publication number: GB2095438A
Application number: GB8208585A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: SEFEA SOC EUROP DE FABRICATION
Current assignee: SEFEA SOC EUROP DE FABRICATION
Priority date: 1981-03-25
Filing date: 1982-03-24
Publication date: 1982-09-29
Also published as: FR2502804A1; JPS57211082A

Abstract

When a timepiece stem 2 is pulled out (to the left in Figure 2), a rocking lever mechanism 4,7 moves a sliding pinion 3 inwards from a rest position O to a first working position I and then to a second working position II. The pull that has to be applied to the stem 2 in order to effect the movement from the first working position I to the second working position II corresponds to only a part of the pull required for the complete resetting of the spring of the rocking lever mechanism. In the position I, a toothing 36 on the sliding pinion meshes directly with a toothing 13 which projects from the underside 16 of a date ring 1. In position II, the pinion 3 moves fully inward so that its crown toothing 3a meshes with a gear 14 for hand setting. The rest (or winding) position O and the second working position II are thus located one on each side of the first working position I. The set of teeth 13 on the ring is located approximately midway between the edges of the said lateral surface 1b, which makes possible a more compact construction of the timepiece, and are shaped to avoid jamming as the pinion 3 is displaced. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Timepiece having an auxiliary indicating member for supplementary data The present invention relates to a timepiece com- prising, in addition to the time-of-the-day indicating means, an auxiliary indicating member for indicating supplementary data such as the day of the month.

In such timepieces, the correction of the time of the day setting and that of the supplementary data setting are usually effected by means of a control device comprising a stem and a sliding pinion (castle wheel). By means of a pull applied to the stem, the sliding pinion is displaced axially from a rest position to a first stable working position and then to a second stable working position. In the first working position, a meshing part of the sliding pinion, such as a set of teeth, is in mesh with a set of teeth on the auxiliary indicating member. The second working position of the sliding pinion makes possible the correction of the time setting.When the control device, that is to say the stem and the sliding pinion, is in this last-mentioned position, one of the elements, namely the stem or the sliding pinion, can cooperate with means for correcting the setting of the time indicated. For example, the sliding pinion may be provided with a set of teeth which, in the second working position, meshes with an idler intermediate wheel which is drivably connected to the analog time-indicating means.

As a general rule, the rest position of the sliding pinion corresponds to the pressed-in position of the stem and the first and second working positions correspond respectively to two different pulled-out positions of the stem.

The stem and the sliding pinion are operatively interconnected by a rocking lever mechanism which includes a rocking lever and resilient means enabling the stem and pinion to be held in their stable position. The rocking lever is variously known as a rocking bar, a pull-out piece and a setting lever. The term pull-out piece is employed herein. The resilient means is usually constituted by at least one spring or by a resilient member which acts as a spring, one part of which is rigid with the plate of the movement and the other part of which is operatively connected to the sliding pinion so as to follow the displacement thereof. Such a resilient member is known as a return bar or yoke. The term "resilient lever" is employed herein.

A timeplace is known from Swiss Patent No 607556 which is provided with a day-of-the-month indicating ring and a control device enabling setting of both the time of the day and the day of the month.

In this known timepiece the first and second working positions of the sliding pinion are located one on each side of the rest position of the pinion. This disposition has the disadvantage that, in order to bring about the displacement of the sliding pinion from the first working position to the second working position, it is necessary to apply to the stem a relatively strong pull corresponding to that required for the complete resetting of the spring of the rocking lever mechanism. This disadvantage may be intolerable in the case of watches of small dimensions such as ladies' wrist watches.

This is why one of the objects of the present invention is to provide a timepiece in which the pull that must be applied to the stem in order to effect the displacement from the first working position to the second working position corresponds to only a part of the pull necessary for completely resetting the spring of the rocking lever mechanism.

According to the invention, there is provided a timepiece comprising a body, time-indicating means, an auxiliary indicating member mounted in the body, and a control device which includes a stem mounted for axial sliding movement in the body, a sliding pinion carried by this stem and a rocking lever mechanism operatively interconnecting the stem and the pinion and permitting these two elements to occupy three different stable axial positions, namely a rest position, a first working position in which a toothed part of the pinion is in mesh with a set of teeth projecting from a surface of the auxiliary indicating member and a second working position, and wherein the rocking lever mechanism is so arranged that the rest position and the second working position of the sliding pinion are located one on each side of the first working position of the sliding pinion.

Thus, the first and second working positions of the sliding pinion are located beyond the rest position thereof. As a result, both the displacement of the sliding pinion from its rest position to its first working position and its displacement from the first working position to the second working position requires only a pull of smaller strength than the pull that is necessary for the complete resetting of the spring of the rocking lever mechanism.

According to a preferred embodiment, the set of teeth on the auxiliary indicating member is located substantially mid-way between the edges of the said lateral surface of the auxiliary indicating member.

This arrangement makes possible a more compact construction of the timepiece.

The invention will be described in more detail, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a partial schematic plan view of a watch according to an embodiment of the invention; Figure2 is a vertical section on the line ll-ll of Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a vertical section on the line Ill-Ill of Figure 1.

The watch shown includes a day-of-the-month indicator 1, in the form of a flat ring having an inner set of teeth 1 a with which an actuating tooth (not shown), driven by the movement of the watch, cooperates once during each 24 hours.

The watch comprises a control device including a stem 2 which is capable of occupying three different axial positions; one of them, namely the pressed-in position, is the position in which the stem is shown in the drawings. In the case shown, in which the watch is electronic, this pressed-in position of the stem is a neutral position; this position will be the winding position in the case of a mechanical watch.

The second position of the stem is an intermediate position corresponding to the manual correction of the setting of the day-of-the-month ring 1 a. The third fully pulled-out position is the time-setting position.

The stem 2 carries, is well known manner, a sliding pinion 3 with which it is kinematically connected by a rocking lever mechanism. This mechanism comprises a pull-out piece 4 which is pivotally mounted on a pin 5 of the plate 6 of the movement and a U-shaped resilient lever 7 which is fixed at the end of one of its limbs 7a to the pin 5 of the plate 6.

An end part 4a of the pull-out piece 4 is engaged in a groove 8 in the stem 2. Another end part 4b of the pull-out piece 4 cooperates with the inner edge 100 of the other limb 7b of the resilient lever 7. The inner edge 100 has three notches 9a, 9b and 9c, each corresponding, as will be explained later, to a respective axial position of the stem 2 and of the pinion 3. An end portion 10 of the limb 7b of the rocking lever 7 is engaged in a groove 11 in the sliding pinion 3.

The pinion 3 has, on the axial end thereof which faces towards the interior of the timepiece, a set of crown teeth 3a and, on the opposite axial end, a set of radial (spur) teeth 3b comprising only two teeth 12 which are located substantially diametrically opposite each other (Figure 3).

The day of the month ring 1 has a series of teeth 13 projecting from the surface 1 b thereof which faces towards the sliding pinion 3, this surface 1 b being parallel to the axis of the latter. The teeth 13 are aligned along a circumferential line coaxial with the ring 1 and they are located halfway between the outer edge 1 c of the day of the month ring 1 (Figure 1) and the inner edge ldthereofwhich is provided with the set of teeth 1 a.

The manner in which the timepiece which has just been described operates is as follows. When the control device is in the rest position in which it is shown in the drawings, the end portion 4b of the pull-out piece 4 is engaged in the first notch 9a of the limb 7b, so that the sliding pinion 3 is in a position that is located farthest to the left in Figure 2, a position in which it abuts a conical shoulder 2a of the stem 2. In this position, the set of teeth 3b of the sliding pinion 3 is in position 0, offset leftwardly, as seen in Figure 2, with respect to the position of alignment of the teeth 13 of the day of the month ring 1.The set of teeth 3a of the sliding pinion 3 is likewise offset leftwardly, (as seen) in Figure 2, with respect to the teeth of an intermediate gear 14 which is drivably connected by means not shown to time-indicating hands, also not shown in the drawings.

If, by a pull applied to the control stem 2, the end portion 4b of the pull-out piece 4 is caused to position itself in the second notch 9b in the limb 7b, the sliding pinion 3 will be located in a first working position in which the set of teeth 3b is at position I in alignment with the teeth 13 of the day of the month ring. However, in this first working position, the set of teeth 3a of the sliding pinion 3 is still spaced from the gear 14.

In this first working position, it is thus possible to alter the position of the day of the month ring 1 by rotating the stem 2 about its axis, the set of teeth 3b being in mesh with the set of teeth formed by the teeth 13 of the ring 1.

By a further pull applied to the stem 3, the end portion 4b of the pull-out piece 4 is positioned in the third notch Sc of the limb 7b. The sliding pinion 3 is thus moved to the second working position in which the set of teeth 3b is in position II offset to the right, as seen in Figure 2, with respect to the position of alignment of the teeth 13 of the day of the month ring 1. In this second working position, the set of crown teeth 3a of the sliding pinion 3 is in mesh with the intermediate gear 14. This second working position therefore corresponds to the correction of the setting of the time indicated by the hands (not shown in the drawings).

In Figure 2, the position of a tooth 12 corresponding to the first working position (reference I) and that corresponding to the second working position (reference 11) of the sliding pinion 3 have been merely outlined in chain-dotted lines, the rest position of the tooth being indicated in full lines at 0.

In order to prevent the teeth 12 from jamming against the teeth 13 during the axial displacement of the sliding pinion 3 to the right in Figure 2, from the rest position to the first working position, or else to the left from the second working position to the first working position, each tooth 13, is bounded on the side thereof facing towards the outer edge 1 c and on the side thereof facing towards the inner edge 1 d of the ring 1 by a respective inclined surface 13a, the two surfaces 13a converging towards each other at the side located forwardly with respect to the direction of displacement of the ring 1. In addition, each tooth 13 is bounded, on the side facing towards the sliding pinion 3, by a surface 13b which is inclined with respect to the surface 1 b in the direction towards the position of convergence of the inclined surfaces 13a. Thus, each tooth 13 has only one surface 13which is at right angles to the plane of the surface 1 b, this surface 13c being designed to cooperate with the free end parts of the teeth 12.

Claims

1. Atimepiece comprising a body,timeindicating means, an auxiliary indicating member mounted in the body, and a control device which includes a stem mounted for axial sliding movement in the body, a sliding pinion carried by this stem and a rocking lever mechanism operatively interconnecting the stem and the pinion and permitting these two elements to occupy three different stable axial positions, namely a rest position, a first working position in which a toothed part of the pinion is in mesh with a set of teeth projecting from a surface of the auxiliary indicating member and a second working position, and wherein the rocking lever mechan ism is so arranged that the rest position and the second working position of the sliding pinion are located one on each side of the first working position of the sliding pinion.

2. Atimepiece according to claim 1, wherein the rocking lever mechanism comprises a pull-out piece pivotally mounted on the body with one end portion guided in a groove in the stem and the other end portion of which cooperates with an edge, formed with notches of a first limb of a U-shaped resilient lever which is retained on the body by its other limb, the free end portion of the first limb being guided in a groove in the pinion.

3. Atimepiece according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the set of teeth of the auxiliary indicating member projects from a medial zone of the said surface of the auxiliary indicating member.

4. A timepiece according to claim 1,2 and 3, wherein each tooth of the set of teeth of the auxiliary indicating member is delimited laterally with respect to its diretion of displacement by inclined surfaces convering towards each other.

5. A timepiece according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the toothed part of the sliding pinion is located on an axial end of this pinion.

6. A timepiece according to claim 5, wherein the sliding pinion has at its other axial end a second toothed part which is arranged, in the second working position of the sliding pinion to mesh with a gear drivably connected to the time-indicating means.

7. Atimepiece according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the auxiliary indicating member is a substantially flat ring and in that the set of teeth of this auxiliary indicating member projects from a medial zone of the surface of the ring which faces towards the sliding pinion.

8. Atimepiece according to any of claims I to 7, wherein the set of teeth on the indicating member projects from a surface thereof which is substantially parallel to the axis of the sliding pinion.

9. Atimepiece substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.