JPH07294667A - Timepiece - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a dial of timepiece having a solar battery on the lower surface of a coating member, which cannot be seen through the coating member, by increasing the transmittance of light on the surface of the coating member, and making it possible to adopt a thick coating member. CONSTITUTION:This timepiece has a movement 17, wherein an outer package 21 having a windshield 23, a dial 15, which is provided on the movement 17, and a hand 19, which is driven by the movement 17. The dial 15 comprises a solar battery 15 and a coating member 11. The coating member 11 comprises ceramics, whose roughnesses on the upper surface and the rear surface are different from each other.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a watch structure, and more particularly, to a dial plate structure of a watch including a solar cell.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a solar cell in a timepiece having a solar cell is generally used on the dial surface under the windshield so that it can be seen from the outside because it absorbs light to generate electricity. It has become a structure.

In such a structure, the solar cell has a unique deep purple color, and thus the color and design of the dial plate are greatly restricted when trying to achieve a harmony in appearance as a timepiece.

Therefore, it has been proposed to provide a covering member on the solar cell. A timepiece provided with this covering member will be described with reference to the sectional view of FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, a movement 17 for driving a pointer 19 is provided in an exterior 21 having a windshield 23 made of transparent glass.

The dial 1 is used as the time display means of the clock.
5 is arranged on the lower surface side of the windshield 23, and the dial 15 is provided with a solar cell 13. Further, a covering member 11 is provided on the light receiving surface side of the solar cell 13.

The covering member 11 is made of a translucent material such as ceramics. And the covering member 11
Is 1/2 to 2 / of the light applied to the covering member 11.
The light of No. 3 transmits and is irradiated on the solar cell 13, and an electromotive force is generated.

As shown in FIG. 1, since the covering member 11 is provided on the upper surface side of the solar cell 13, the unique color of the solar cell 13 is difficult to see.

[0009]

However, in the timepiece having the configuration shown in FIG. 1, in order to secure the electromotive force of the solar cell 13 to some extent and prevent the timepiece from stopping, the light transmittance of the covering member 11 is reduced. Needs to be increased. The coating member 11 made of ceramics has a proportional relationship between the thickness and the transmittance, and if the coating member 11 is thick, the transmittance becomes poor.

Therefore, at present, the thickness of the covering member 11 is reduced so that the light transmittance of the covering member 11 is about 50%. That is, the transmittance is given priority, and the thickness of the covering member 11 is sacrificed to some extent.

For this reason, for example, when white ceramics is used as the covering member 11, the region where the solar cell 13 is present does not appear white as the dial 15, but the dark purple of the solar cell 13 and the white color of the ceramics. And are mixed, and they look light gray.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and to provide a timepiece provided with a solar cell having a coating member having a large light transmittance, in which the solar cell on the lower surface of the coating member cannot be seen through the coating member. Is to provide a dial.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, the timepiece dial of the present invention adopts the following construction.

The dial of the timepiece according to the present invention comprises a movement provided in the exterior provided with a windshield, a dial provided on the movement, and a pointer driven by the movement. The dial comprises a solar cell and a covering member. The covering member is made of ceramics having different surface roughnesses on the front surface and the back surface, and moreover, the surface roughness on the front surface on the light receiving surface side is smaller than that on the solar cell side.

[0015]

In the dial of the timepiece of the present invention, the thickness of the covering member made of ceramics is set so that the solar cell of the lower layer cannot be seen through the covering member.

Further, the covering member is configured such that the front surface and the back surface have different surface roughness, and further, the surface roughness of the front surface on the light receiving surface side is smaller than that on the solar cell side back surface.

With this structure, the covering member suppresses the diffused reflection of light on the surface of the light-receiving surface having a small surface roughness and increases the amount of light transmitted to the solar cell.

Further, the back surface of the coating member on the solar cell side has a surface roughness larger than that of the front surface. Therefore, even if the light incident on the covering member is diffusely reflected on the back surface to some extent and the thickness of the covering member is reduced, it is possible to prevent the solar cell in the lower layer from being seen through the covering member. Therefore, the plate thickness of the covering member can be made thinner than before.

As a result, the color mixture of the dark purple of the solar cell and the ceramic does not occur, and moreover, the transmittance of light to the solar cell is increased and the utilization efficiency of light is improved. Therefore, from the windshield side of the timepiece, the solar cell cannot be seen through the covering member.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The structure of the dial of a timepiece having a solar cell according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a timepiece having a dial having a covering member on a solar cell according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the movement 17 is provided in an outer casing 21 provided with a windshield 23 made of transparent glass or sapphire material. This movement 17 drives a pointer 19 that displays the time.

Although not shown in FIG. 1, the movement 17 is a crystal oscillator as a time reference, a semiconductor integrated circuit for generating drive pulses for driving a clock based on the oscillation frequency of the crystal oscillator, and A step motor that receives a drive pulse and drives the train wheel mechanism every second, and a train wheel mechanism are provided.

The dial 1 is used as a time display means of the clock.
5 is arranged on the lower surface side of the windshield 23, and the dial 15 is provided with a solar cell 13. Further, a covering member 11 is provided on the light receiving surface side of the solar cell 13. Although not shown in FIG. 1, a time scale or a mark is provided on the front surface of the covering member 11.

The solar cell 13 has a function of converting light energy into electric energy, and selectively introduces p-type impurities and n-type impurities into the non-single-crystal silicon thin film to obtain p-type impurities.
It has an n-junction.

The covering member 11 is made of a translucent material such as ceramics. And the covering member 11
Is 1/2 to 2 / of the light applied to the covering member 11.
The light of No. 3 transmits and is irradiated on the solar cell 13, and an electromotive force is generated.

The covering member 11 of the present invention has a thickness of 0.1 mm.
To about 0.5 mm of ceramic material. Alumina or zirconia material is used for the material of the covering member 11.

Further, the covering member 11 is constructed so that the front surface which is the light receiving surface and the back surface on the solar cell 13 side have different surface roughness. That is, the surface roughness of the covering member 11 is set so that the surface roughness of the front surface on the light receiving surface side is smaller than that on the back surface on the solar cell 13 side.

In the dial 15 of the timepiece of the present invention, the thickness of the covering member 11 made of ceramics is set according to the following two viewpoints. The first viewpoint is the covering member 1
1 through which the thickness of the solar cell 13 arranged in the lower layer of the covering member 11 is not visible.
The second viewpoint is to make the thickness such that the transmittance of the covering member 11 is about 50%.

Further, the covering member 11 is constructed so that the front surface and the back surface have different surface roughness as described above, and moreover, the surface roughness of the front surface on the light receiving surface side from the back surface on the solar cell 13 side. Is small.

For this reason, the covering member 11 suppresses irregular reflection of light on the light-receiving surface side having a small surface roughness, and increases the amount of light transmitted to the solar cell 13. Further, since the back surface of the covering member 11 on the solar cell 13 side has a larger surface roughness than the front surface, the light incident on the covering member 11 is diffusely reflected on the back surface to some extent to reduce the thickness of the covering member 11. However, color mixture between the covering member 11 and the solar cell 13 does not occur. Therefore, the covering member 11 can be thinner than before.

As a result, the color mixture of the dark purple of the solar cell 13 and the ceramic does not occur, and furthermore, the solar cell 1
The light transmittance to 3 is increased, and the light utilization efficiency is improved. Therefore, from the windshield 23 side of the timepiece, the solar cell 13 cannot be seen through the covering member 11.

The coating member 11 of the present invention is placed in the solar cell 13 and the light transmittance is measured. The results are shown below. The covering member 11 used has both surfaces as grinding surfaces,
A comparison was made with the case where the front surface was a lap surface and the back surface was a ground surface. Here, the surface roughness of the ground surface of the covering member 11 is 0.
It was 8 μm to 1.5 μm, and the surface roughness of the lap surface was 0.05 μm to 0.2 μm.

As a result of the measurement, the transmittance of the one having both surfaces ground is 50%, and the transmittance of the covering member 11 having the front surface as the lapping surface and the back surface as the grinding surface is 54% to 56%. The light transmittance is improved from 4% to 6%.

The covering member 11 is formed by sintering after molding using a die, and is further ground to be slightly thicker than a predetermined thickness, and then one surface of the covering member 11 is further wrapped. Obtain by processing.

In the above description, the covering member 11
Although the surface roughness of the front surface and the back surface is the ground surface and the lap surface, both surfaces of the covering member 11 may be lap surfaces. When both sides are wrapping surfaces, the covering member 1 has a lap surface on the front surface and a grinding surface on the back surface.
A little thicker than 1.

[0037]

As is apparent from the above description, in the dial plate of the present invention, the surface roughness of the front surface and the back surface of the covering member is changed to improve the light transmittance on the light receiving surface side. . That is, the transmittance is changed between the front surface and the back surface of the covering member to increase the light utilization efficiency.

Therefore, the thickness of the covering member can be such that the solar cell cannot be seen through the covering member, and the phenomenon that the solar cell can be seen through the covering member does not occur. It is possible to provide a timepiece dial provided with a solar cell having good appearance quality.

When a coating member made of particularly white ceramics is adopted, a dial plate having a white color which cannot be obtained by a timepiece provided with a conventional solar cell can be obtained. This is a great advantage of the present invention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a configuration of a timepiece including a solar cell according to an embodiment of the present invention and a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 coating member 13 solar cell 15 dial 17 movement 23 windshield

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A movement provided in an exterior having a windshield, a dial provided on the movement, and a pointer driven by the movement. The dial has a solar cell and a covering member, and the covering member is a front surface. A watch characterized by being made of ceramics having different surface roughnesses on the front surface and the back surface. 2. A movement provided inside an exterior having a windshield, a dial provided on the movement, and a pointer driven by the movement, the dial having a solar cell and a covering member, and the covering member being the front side. A timepiece characterized in that the surface roughness of the surface and the back surface is different, and that the surface roughness of the front surface on the light receiving surface side is smaller than that on the solar cell side. 3. A movement provided in an exterior having a windshield, a dial provided on the movement, and a pointer driven by the movement. The dial has a solar cell and a covering member, and the covering member is a front surface. A watch characterized by being made of ceramics having different front and back surface reflectances. 4. A movement provided in an exterior having a windshield, a dial provided on the movement, and a pointer driven by the movement, the dial having a solar cell and a covering member, and the covering member being the front side. A timepiece characterized by having different surface roughness between the surface and the back surface, and further comprising ceramics whose back surface on the solar cell side is a grinding surface and whose front surface on the light receiving surface side is a lap surface. 5. A movement provided in an exterior having a windshield, a dial provided on the movement, and a pointer driven by the movement, the dial having a solar cell and a covering member, and the covering member being a solar cell. The timepiece is characterized in that the back surface on the side and the front surface on the light-receiving surface side are made of ceramics that are wrapping surfaces. 6. A timepiece according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, wherein the covering member is made of ceramics made of alumina or zirconia.