US2927420A - Waterproof watch winding means - Google Patents

Description

March 8, 1960 c. HlLL ET AL WATERPROOF WATCH WINDING MEANS Filed April 21, 1958 Z6 I 2: Z %TORS United States... Pate Q .7 96:

WATERPROOF WATCH WINDING MEANS Charles Hill, Reno, Nev., and Charles K. Johns, New

York, N. assignors to Hil-Jon Safety Crown Corporation, Brooklyn, N.Y., a corporation of New York Application April 21, 1958, Serial No. 729,651

1 Claim. or. 58-90) This invention relates to watch winding devices and in particular to waterproofing means for use in such winding devices as contained in the crown of a watch.

A particular object of the invention is to provide for the waterproofing of a watch crown in which means are provided that will guard against overwinding of the watch spring, stripping of the winding gears, excess strain on the main spring, and rupture of the parts involved in the winding action so that the watch is protected and the person winding the same is prevented from overwinding the spring.

A still further object of the invention is to provide in the very small and compact watches in present day use, a combination winding member, release mechanism and waterproof means that can be applied to the smallest watches in use without the necessity of providing special equipment for the assembly of the parts and to provide a device of the character referred to which will give an audible click and also make itself felt by the fingers of the person winding the watch so that warning is given that the spring is fully wound.

Further objects of the invention are to provide a water-.

proofed safety crown device that has a minimum number of parts, that can be manufactured as a part of the watch or as a separate unit and one that can be put into the very narrow space allowed in thin small watches impairing the efliciency thereof; and to provide a tension member whose action and position are coplanar with the parts with which 'it is associated for release action; and a device that can be made at minimum cost and applied with accuracy and at the same time prevent rust and moisture from affecting the delicate parts.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention comprises certain constructions hereinafter described and then particularly pointed out in the claim, and a preferred embodiment of our invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a view in sectional elevation of the winding crown of a watch which is threaded on the stem, the crown showing the waterproofing elements applied thereto,

Figure 2 is a bottom plan view of the crown illustrated in Figure 1 with various parts broken away to further illustrate the structure,

Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmentary section of a part of Figure 1 showing a modified form of closure, and

Figure 4 is a plan view of one form of tension member employed in the crown as a release member.

Reference is made to our Patent No. 2,563,112 for a showing of a conventional watch structure to which our present invention may be applied, the watch representing a pocket watch or wrist watch.

Referring to the drawings in detail, indicates the crown piece designated as a winding member, which through an arbor 21 is used to convey winding action from the usual gear to a spring to be wound. The spring is not shown but may in wound directly from the arbor or through intermediate gears. The crown 10 is shaped to provide a hollow receptacle portion 10B in which is coaxially positioned a tension member 16. The crown 10 is of flat cylindrical form providing an annular depending wall 10A having inner vertical cavities or slots 13 at diametrically opposite sides of the crown chamher 103.

The crown or winding member 10 as above noted, is vertically fluted to provide the slots 13 into which extend the prongs 14 formed in the semicircular flanking portions 15 of a tension disk 16 whose diametrically extending flat narrow central zone 17 is provided with protuberances or dimples 18. The latter are arranged to engage the slots or other pocket forming detent openings 19 in a winding plate 20 having an integral internally threaded sleeve 20A for attachment to the upper end of the watch winding stem or arbor 21. The plate 20 turns on a slide disk 20B of metal which is supported by a swaged or otherwise formed flange 22 of the crown 10. The prongs 14 and the dimples 18 are positioned in the oppositely disposed pairs of high and low peripheral areas provided by the zone 17 and its flanking wing portions 15 that make up the disk 16.

For the purpose of rendering the crown operating parts free of moisture and dirt, a gasket or disk 23 is positioned over the sleeve 20A and is made from a compressible waterproof plastic material. The latter is engaged on its under or outer side by a fiat metal compression disk 24 which is forced against the gasket to expand the same. This expansion will cause the gasket 23 to closely hug the inside wall of the crown to render the crown waterproof. The disk 24 is forced against the gasket and securely held by the swage 25 on the lower end of the crown or winding member 10 to hold the gasket 23 under compression about the sleeve 20A and against the under side of the slide disk 20B. In this manner the compression of the gasket will not interfere with the free rotation of the winding plate 20 or the attachment of the crown to the winding stem 21 of a watch.

In Figure 3 the inner wall of the crown may be threaded to receive a threaded compression plate 26 which can be screwed into place with the desired force to compress the gasket 23 and can then be locked in place by the turned over or swaged lower edge 27 of the crown.

Our invention is not to be restricted to the precise details of construction shown since various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention or sacrificing the advantages to be derived from its use.

What we claim is:

A waterproof safety crown device comprising a spring winding and waterproofing means for a watch or the like including a hollow cylindrical winding crown piece formed to provide vertical slots in the interior wall thereof, a rotary winding plate in said crown piece having detent openings at the periphery thereof, an internally threaded sleeve depending from said rotary plate and adapted to be detachably secured to the upper end of the winding arbor of a watch, a free flexible disk coextensive with said rotary plate and shaped to provide oppositely disposed pairs of high and low peripheral areas of the disk for engagement respectively with said slots of the crown piece and with the detent openings in the rotary plate for providing a releasable driving connection between said crown piece and said winding arbor, a slide plate under said rotary plate and upon which the latter has sliding movement, an upper flange on said crown underlying the periphery of said slide plate a waterproof gasket under said sliding plate and upper i 3199239292 1 v ,7 1 V flange and surrounding said sleeve, a gasket compres' 2,669,833 Hill et a1 Feb. 23, 1954 sion disk for holding said gasket under compression about 2,746,875 Hill et a1. Sept. 6, 1955- said sleeve and against the underside of said slide disk said compression disk constituting a closu re for the FOREIGN TENTS i i VG and a P EQ Q Said 5 6,982 Great Britain Mar. 19, 1910 t. #mPnsQnmg Sal Compress 1S 222,297 Switzerland Oct. 16, 1942 References Cited in the file of this patent 242198 Swltzerland Sept 1946 UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,405,928 Feurer Aug. 13, 1945

Images