US2951333A

US2951333A - Watertight wrist-watch case

Info

Publication number: US2951333A
Application number: US645620A
Authority: US
Inventors: Morf Ernest
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1956-11-30
Filing date: 1957-03-12
Publication date: 1960-09-06
Anticipated expiration: 1977-09-06

Description

United States Patent WATERTIGHT WRIST-WATCH CASE Ernest Morf, Beauregard 15, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland Filed Mar. 12, 1957, 'Ser. No. 645,620 7 7 Claims priority, application Switzerland Nov. 30, 1956 1 Claim. (CI. 58-90) This invention relates to watertight wrist-watch cases.

Watertight wrist-watch cases comprising an inner watertight unit located in an outer ornamented watch case part are already known in the art. In these known watch cases the only difference between the inner watertight unit and a common watertight watch case resides in the'fact that said inner unit does not carry wrist-band attaching lugs. This inner unit'thus not only comprises elements adjusted together so as to ensure the tightness of the unit, but also comprises means ensuring the closure of the unit.

It is now an object of the invention to provide a watertight wrist-watch case of that type, in which the elements of the inner unit are only set together in order to ensure the tightness of the case, and in which the outer casing part ensures the closure of that unit.

It is also an object of the invention to arrange the inner unit so that it may be opened by removing the glass, means being provided in order to avoid the glass damaging.

A further object of the invent-ion consists in providing the glass with an outer peripheral shoulder and in setting a protecting ring under said shoulder.

Still a further object of the invention consists in providing the outer case part with an inwardly extending flange covering the peripheral portion of the glass or at least a part of the protecting ring thereof (when the latter is rigidly fixed to the glass), thus avoiding the watch movement, axially held in place in said inner unit by the glass, thrusting the latter out of its lodging as a consequence of repeated impacts.

Still further objects of the invention will become apparent in the course of the following description.

Three embodiments of the watch case according to the invention are represented by way of example in the drawings annexed to this specification.

In the drawings,

Figs. 1, 2 and 3 are each a sectional view of one of said embodiments.

The watch cases represented in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 comprise each an inner watertight unit including a cap member 1 made out of a stainless steel sheet by stamping. The bottom portions 1a and the side wall portions 1b of these cap members have thus approximately the same thickness. The side walls 1b are provided each with an inner shoulder 2 near the bottom portion 1a. The upper portion of the side walls 1b are provided with an annular peripheral recess 3 extending all around the cap membe thus forming an annular rim projecting above the upper face of said side Wall from the inner edge thereof. A pipe 4 for the passage of the winding and hand-setting stern of the watch movement is tightly fixed in an opening of every side wall portion 1b, said side wall portions being thick enough to firmly hold said pipes 4 in place. Encasing rings 5a (Fig. 1), 5b (Fig. 2), 50 (Fig. 3) are set on the shoulders 2. These encasing rings are split to enable the passage of the winding and hand-setting stems as shown in particular in Fig. l. The said encasing rings ments have dilierent sizes.

are adapted for receiving the watch movements: 6a (Fig. 1), 6b (Fig. 2), 60 (Fig. 3).

By comparing the embodiment of Fig. 1 with the two other embodiments, it will be observed that the cap member 1 is similarly shaped in every case, although the move The watch movement differences are compensated however by the various widths and heights of the encasing rings 5a, 5b, 5c.

Each cap member 1 is tightly closed by glass 7 provided with an axially extending peripheral flange 8 set in the side wall 1b of the cap member and pressed against it by a strengthening ring 9 coming in contact with a dial 10 fixed to the watch movement. The glasses 7 are furthermore provided each with an outer peripheral shoulder 11, and a protecting ring 12 of substantially rigid material such as metal is located around their flanges 8' between the shoulder 11 and the upper face or" the cap member side wall. An annular lodging 13 is provided in these rings 12 to receive a part of the glass shoulder 11.

To open the inner units represented, a knife blade for instance, may be introduced into the groove formed under the protecting ring by the recess 3 of the cap member 1 so as to lift said protecting ring together with the glass and to disengage the glass flange 8 from said cap member. During said operation the knife blade does not risk coming into contact with the glass flange 8 because it butts against the rim projecting from the inner edge of the upper side wall portion of the cap member. Moreover, the metal rings 12 will not become distorted when opening the said units, although they are very small (their width is smaller than the thickness of the side walls 1b), because they are set around the glass shoulder 11 which holds them. For this purpose, tne lodging 13 of the protecting rings 12 and the glass shoulders 11 need only be adjusted exactly one with respect to the other.

The inner units described above consisting each of a cap member 1 and a glass 7 are tightly closed as soon as a watertight Winding crown is set on the pipe 4. Moreover, they have a standardized form and they can be set at will in differently ornamented outer casing parts.

In the first embodiment (Fig. l), the said inner unit is located in an outer casing part 14 forming together the visible bezel portion and the case band carrying the wrist-band attaching lugs. The case band 14 is provided moreover with an inwardly projecting flange 14a covering the glass protecting ring 12 and the peripheral portion of the glass 7 which is provided with an annular lodging 18. To enable assembling said watch case, the width of the protecting ring 12 should not be larger than the thickness of the wall 1b. A U-shaped notch 15 is provided in the case band 14 to ensure the passage of the pipe 4. Eventually, the inner surface of the case band 14 and the outer surface of the side wall 1b are adjusted with respect to one another so that the inner watertight unit is held by friction in the case band without requiring further fixing means. In this embodiment the bottom portion 1a of the inner unit also constitutes the watch case bottom.

Due to the fact that the glass 7 holds the watch movement 6a axially in place in the cap member 1 it could happen after repeated impacts that the Watch movement thrusts the glass 7 out of the cap member 1. This risk is, however, avoided by the inner flange 14a of the casing outer part because the wrist band thrusts it on the peripheral glass portion and because the cap member bottom portion of the inner unit lies on the Wrist.

If the inner diameter of the protecting ring 12 and the outer diameter of the strengthening ring 9 are chosen so that the glass flange 8 will be bent outwards when said rings are set in place, the protecting ring 12 is firmly fixed to the glass 7. As a consequence the inwardly projecting flange 14a of the case band 14 needs only to extend over a part of the protecting ring 12 to hold the glass 7 axially in place in the cap member 1.

In this first embodiment, it is, however, not advisable to reduce the width of this flange 14a, since the latter covers the peripheral portion of the glass 7 engaged between the cap member side wall and the strengthening ring, thus avoiding the nnesthetic dark zone produced by said glass portion.

In the second embodiment (Fig. 2) the inner watertight unit (1, 7-) is located in an outer casing part consisting of a golden sheath. This sheath comprises a case band 16 and a bottom 17 snap-fitted to said case band. The glass 7 is also provided at its periphery with a lodging 18 and the bezel portion 19 extending inwardly from the case band 16 and made integral therewith, fills said lodging so that the peripheral flange 8 of the glass 7 is hidden by said-bezel which also holds said glass in the cap member 1. The strengthening ring 2 which is visible, is given, of course, the same appearance as the outer casing part; this strengthening ring is either made of gold or at least gold-plated.

It will also be observed in this second embodiment that the golden sheath can be made very thin without risk of crushing, since it is held by the inner unit which has exactly the same shape as the outer sheath, thus serving as support therefor. Experiments have shown that the thickness of the

sheath

16, 17 may be chosen almost equal to half the thickness of the usual golden cases.

Instead of a cylindrical side wall 1b and a cylindrical glass flange 8, the surfaces of the cap member and of the glass which engage one another, could also be made truncated conical, as shown in Fig. 3. In this third embodiment the inner surface of the side wall 1b and the outer surface of the glass flange 8 are truncated conical sothat the smaller diameter of these truncated conical portions is situated within the cap member. It is well known in the art, that such conical portions constitute a satisfactory seat for the glass provided that the opening angle of said truncated conical portions be chosen between 2 and 4.

The watch cases described hereabove have several advantages with respect to the watch cases known in the art comprising an inner watertight un-it set in an outer case part.

Important series of elements can be manufactured in advance without considering the movements which will have to be mounted in said cases. Sets of rings a, 5b, So with different widths and heights will enable locating several watch movement types in the same cap members 1.

The side walls of the inner watertight unit are so thin that the said unit actually does not increase the watch diameter substantially. In the caseof the golden watch, the watch movement cannot be expected to be surrounded by two sheaths. The watch has exactly the same appearance as usual golden watches. With respect to the usual golden watches the watch represented in Fig. 2 moreover has the advantage to be substantially cheaper because its two golden parts need not be connected to one another in a tight manner, and since these parts are substantially thinner than the corresponding parts of a golden case comprising a thin golden sheath.

With respect to the cap members known in the art, which also comprise a bottom portion and a side wall portion, the cap members 1 and the encasing rings 5a, 5b, 5c are much easier to manufacture, for instance, by stamping the cap member 1, and then either coiling a sectional thread with a subsequent cutting, or stamping the rings 5a, 5b, 50, instead of the stamping and lathe-turning operations necessary with the known cap members. The rings 5a, 5b, 50 can obviously be set in place in said cap members immediately before selling them.

Moreover, the cap members 1 and the glasses 7 constitute watertight sheaths for the watch movement and their closure is sufficiently ensured to enable stocking and mailing the watches without outer casings, so that the latter can be made by another manufacturer-who is not bound with tolerances which are so narrow as those of the inner unit parts.

The inner extending flange portion of said outer casings has the technical elfect of holding the inner unit tightly closed as well as the esthetic effect of hiding the unesthetic peripheral dark-zone of the glass portion'engaged between the bezel and the strengthening ring.

While several embodiments of the invention has been disclosed hereabove, it will be understood that various changes in the shape, sizes and arrangement of parts could be resorted to'without sacrificing the advantages of the invention or departing from the scope of the subjoined claim. Y Y

I claim:

A watertight wrist-watch case consisting of an inner standardized watertight unit and an outer ornamented part surrounding said inner unit to ensure its closure and carrying wrist-band attaching means, said inner unit 'comprising a rust-proof metal cap member having a bottom and a side wall portion, a peripheral rim extending upwardly from'the inner edge of the upper face of said cap member, a glass provided with an axially extending peripheral flange engaged in said rim "and in the upper portion of said cap memberside wall, a strengthening ring compressing said glass flange radially against the side wall of said cap member, an outer peripheral shoulder provided on said glass, and a protecting ring surrounding said glass flange and located between said glass shoulder and said cap member rim, in abutting engagement therewith, said protecting ring extending beyond said cap member rim to form together with the cap member upper face, a groove permitting engagement of'a sharp blade therein to separate said glass from said cap member, and

' said outer case part comprising an'upper flange extending inwardly above'said protecting ring to secure said inner unit axially in said outer case part.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS