US3379004A

US3379004A - Tetra-time travel watch

Info

Publication number: US3379004A
Application number: US576191A
Authority: US
Inventors: Lee Shao-Tang
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1966-08-29
Filing date: 1966-08-29
Publication date: 1968-04-23
Anticipated expiration: 1985-04-23

Description

April 23, 1968 SHAOTANG LEE TETRA-TIME TRAVEL WATCH u L R n T w a m Q v IIIIIII J V 9 m 0 m m 0 v w h M h v S s 2 O I x- I m w w M W 0 6 w a? a 9 s 5 WV OQJB. A 2. ww 2 *9 W 4 v o Filed Aug. 29, 1966 April 23, 1968 SHAO-TANG LEE TETRA-TIME TRAVEL WATCH Filed Aug. 29, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Shae-Tang Lee INVENTOR.

BY, w

Waxy EM United States Patent 3,379,004 TETRA-THME TRAVEL WATCH Shae-Tang Lee, 25 Chi-inning St, Taichung, Taiwan Continuation-impart or application Ser. No. 417,841, Dec. 11, 1964. This application Aug. 29, 1966, Ser. Na. 576,191

'7 Claims. (Cl. 58--42.5)

AESCT OF THE DISCLOSURE A watch including, within a Watch case, an outer local time dial ring and an inner rotatably mounted Greenwich dial, time indicating hands mounted for simultaneously indicating time on both the dial ring and the inner dial, an a.m.-p.m. indicating ring rotatably underlying the local time dial and selectively indicating, through an opening in the dial ring, either a.m. or pm, and a calendar ring underlying the local time dial ring and selectively exposing, through a suitable opening, the day of the month. The watch is also provided with means for effecting an automatic synchronized driving of the a.m.-p.m. indicating ring and the calendar ring, and in addition provides for a specific orientation of indicia so as to enable an indication of time in four different time zones simultaneously.

This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 417,841, filed on Dec. 11, 1964, for World Travel Watch, noW Patent No. 3,318,085. The invention herein relates to a watch having special morning and afternoon indicator means (a.m.-p.m.-indicator), specially designed pairs of indicia on the inside wall of the case-rim or on the local time dial ring or on the case-rim, specially inscribed pairs of representative indicia, longitudinal degrees and the names of the localities of the twenty-four local standard times around the globe on the back, a special local time dial ring, a Greenwich time dial disc, and the means for turning the Greenwich time dial disc. The last three items have been specified in detail in my above noted prior patent application. This tetra-time travel watch is a twelve oclock watch, using three stripes to indicate twelve oclock, two stripes to indicate six oclock and thicker stripe to indicate three and nine oclock on both the local time dial ring and the Greenwich time dial disc. These improvements shall enable the new watch to indicate four different local times including the Greenwich mean time simultaneously. Once the new watch is adjusted, it can also be adjusted When necessary to indicate any desired local standard time and its opposite local standard time promptly without looking at any other watch or listening to a time broadcast; the Greenwich mean time and its opposite Aukland local standard time shown on the new watch always remain unchanged; and the adjusting action will not confuse the time of the watch by even a single second. This watch will be very convenient to the travelers in this jet and space age, thus the name Tetra-time Travel Watch.

FIG. 1 is a front view of the new watch showing its design in detail.

FIG. 2 is a detailed view of the back of the new watch showing its special arrangement of the representative indicia, longitudinal degrees, and the names of the localities of the local standard times around the globe in pairs.

FIG. 3 is the front view with portions broken away showing the relationship between the calendar-indicator and a.n1.-p.m. indicator in detail.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged partial cross-sectional view as designated by KL in FIG. 3 illustrating the relationship between the calendar-indicator and the a.m.-p.m. indicator.

FIG. 5 is a similar enlarged partial cross-sectional view showing in detail the relationship between the turning means of the a.m.p.m. indicator and the turning means of the calendar-indicator ring in a different design.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are enlarged partial cross-sectional views designated by MN in FIG. 3 showing the relationship between the spring detent and the a.m.-p.m. indicator ring and the calendar ring in two different forms.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings, in this new watch, stripes are substituted for numerals as in modern watches. In FIG. 1, triple stripes 90, 90',

double stripes

89, 89, thicker stripes 88, 88' and

stripes

87, 87 indicating twelve oclock, six oclock, three and nine oclock, and the remaining hours respectively on the local time dial ring 23 and the Greenwich time dial disc. The triangular (or any other shape) hole 82 in the local time dial ring 23 is for exposing the different colors of the segments of the a.m.-p.m. indicator ring. In the morning white will appear through the hole, and black will appear through the hole 82 when it is afternoon by Greenwich mean time. The hole 99 in local time dial ring 23 is for exposing the date. The middle stripe 50 of the triple stripes 90" with arrow head at the Greenwich time dial disc is for adjusting the new watch to indicate a desired local standard time. The pairs of the representative indicia 20, 20' on the inside of the wall of the case-rim, on the case-rim, or on the local time dial ring, act as a mark for adjusting the watch to be used in any desired locality of the twentyfour localities around the globe. Numerals 66, 67, 68, 83, 35 and 33 indicate the hour-hand, the minute-hand, the second-hand, the calendar, the stem-winder and the turning gear of the Greenwich time dial disc respectively. Further, 81 indicates the dark segments of the a.m.-p.m. indicator ring. FIG. 2 shows the indicia 20, 20', the longi tudinal degrees 21 and the names 57 of the localities of twenty-four local standard times arranged in pairs at the back of the new watch, 20 indicates the locality name of the eastern hemisphere and 20 indicates that of the western hemisphere. For ease of illustration only one name in each local standard time zone has been shown, but in practice we can write or inscribe more detailed names at the back of the watch as follows:

FIG. 3 details the relationship between the calendar ring 83, and the a.m.-p.m. indicator ring. The inner edge of the a.m.-p.m. indicator ring has thirty or thirty two round incisions 85 which are exactly the same shape as the thirty one round incisions 86 of the calendar ring 83.

However, the a.m.-p.m. indicator has a larger diameter, is wider, and overlies the calendar ring, having openings 95 to expose numerals of the calendar ring. There are bright (or white) color segments 84 and dark (or black) color segments 81 on the a.m.-p.m. indicator ring. Instead of using colors, the alphabets am. (A) and pm. (P) may also be used. For turning the a.m.-p.rn. indicator ring I have devised two devices. One is shown in FIG. 3, 4 and 6 and comprises a disc 74 having two projections 73, 78 on the up side and two supports '76, 76 on its under side. With these two supports the disc is mounted on the turning gear 79. The projections 78, '78 and the

supporters

76, 76 are all aligned on the same diameter with a projection 77 on gear 79. The distance of the projections 78, '78 from the disc center is a little longer than the distance of the projection 77 from the center of the gear 79. The number of the round incisions, segments and openings is thirty. The cross-section of the spring detent 91, biased by spring 94, is as shown in FIG. 6. The other device does not use disc 74- but is formed by adding two longer projections 96, 96' to the gear 79 a little nearer to the center than the original projection '77 of the gear 79. This time the cross-section of the spring detent 91 is shown in FIG. 7 and the color segments, openings and round incisions are thirty two in number. By either one or" the above two devices the a.m.-p.m. indicator ring will be turned and pushed by the projections '73, 78' or 96, 96'. Spring detent 911 will engage and position one segment every twelve hours, that is the white and the black color will appear in the hole 82 every twelve hours alternately to indicate morning and afternoon for Greenwich mean time. The calendar ring will be turned and pushed by the same gear and spring detent 91 will engage and position one segment every twenty four hours. Having an actual sun position, an a.m.-p.m. indicator will not be necessary for a watch in indicating local time. As shown in FIG. 1 the arrow head 59 of the Greenwich time dial disc is pointing at the indicia P-At, that means the watch is being used for Peking local standard time and Atlantic local standard time. Consequently, the new tetra-time travel watch in FIG. 1 indicates simultaneously times of four localities as follows:

(1) Seven oclock forty five minutes and three seconds in the morning on the twenty first day of Peking local standard time.

(2) Seven oclock forty five minutes and three seconds in the afternoon on the twentieth day of Atlantic local standard time.

(3) Eleven oclock forty five minutes and three seconds in the morning on the twentieth day of Aukland local standard time.

(4) Eleven oclock forty five minutes and three seconds in the afternoon on the twentieth day of Greenwich mean time.

When the Greenwich time of this new watch passes twelve oclock in the afternoon, namely eight oclock in the morning of the Peking local standard time, the color in the hole 82 will change to white and the calendar date change to twenty one, that means the new watch indicates morning of the twenty first day Greenwich mean time. When the time passes eight oclock in the afternoon at twenty first day of the Peking local standard time, namely twelve oclock at noon of the twenty first day at Greenwich mean time, the color in the hole 82 will change to black to indicate pm. at the Greenwich mean time. Suppose the owner of this new watch is travelling from Taipei to Chicago and arrives at the above mentioned time, the owner can adjust the arrow 50 to point to the indicia L-Ch rapidly by pulling and turning the winder 35 as specified in my Patent No. 3,318,085. The watch will indicate the time-five oclock forty five minutes and three seconds in the afternoon on the twentieth day of Chicago local standard time, Greenwich mean time of this watch remains unchanged at eleven oclock forty five minutes and three seconds in the afternoon on the twentieth day.

Up to the present, the only way to indicate morning and afternoon in a watch was by using the numerals in a twenty four hour dial watch, no special acting a.m.-p.m. indicator had been devised for this purpose. As specified above, by combining this new invention with my former invention, a new watch of unexpected efificiency will result, that is one watch usable as four watches telling times of four localities at the same time. This new watch is very convenient to the space traveler and supersonic speed jet traveler. Therefore, I name this new watch Tetra-time Travel Watch or Space Master Watch.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principle of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. A multi-local time telling watch comprising, within a case, a local time dial ring, first and second viewing holes through said local time dial ring, an a.m.-p.m. indicating ring underlying said local time dial ring and rotata-bly mounted for a sequential exposure of selected portions of the a.m.-p.m. indicating ring through the first of said viewing holes, said selected portions of the indicating ring including alternating and pm. indicating indicia, a date indicating calendar ring underlying said local time dial ring and rotatably mounted for a sequential exposure of selected portions of the calendar ring through the second of said viewing holes, said selected portions of the calendar ring indicating the days of the month in sequence, and means for effecting an automatic synchronized rotation of both said a.m.- p.m. indicating ring and said calendar ring for exposing a subsequent one of the selected portions of the a.m.- p.m. indicating ring every 12 hours and a subsequent one of the selected portions of the calendar ring every 24 hours, said calendar ring underlying said a.m.-p-.rn. indicating ring, said a.m.-p.m. indicating ring including a series of openings thercabout for sequential alignment with the second viewing hole for the exposure of the underlying portion of the calendar ring therethrough.

2. The watch of claim 1 wherein said means for effecting a rotation of said rings includes a gear driveable at the rate of one revolution per 24 hour period, means mounting a pair of diametrically opposed projections on said gear, means on said a.m.-p.m. indicating ring periodically sequentially engaged by said projections for advancing the a.m.p.m. indicating ring one portion, means mounting a single projection on said gear, and means on said calendar ring periodically engaged by said single projection for advancing the calendar ring one portion.

3. The watch of claim 2 including spring detent means engaged with said a.m.-p.m. indicating ring and said calendar ring for selective cooperation with both the pair of projections and the single projection in effecting the advance of the a.m.-p.rn. ring and the calendar ring.

4. The watch of claim 3 wherein the means on the a.m.-p.m. and calendar rings comprise recesses about the inner peripheries of these rings, said spring detent means engaging these inner peripheries and selectively seating in said recesses.

5. The watch of claim 4 including a central dial mounted within said local time dial ring in a predetermined relationship therewith and for selective rotation relative thereto.

6. The watch of claim 5 including indicia about said local time dial ring indicating 12 hours, indicia in outward radial alignment with the hour indicating indicia indicating different time zones, said time zone indicia, at each of the 12 locations, indicating the opposed time zones in the eastern and western hemispheres whereby all 24 5 time zones will be indicated about the local time dial ring.

7. The watch of claim 6 including indicia about said central dial indicating 12 hours, said central dial indicating Greenwich time and the opposite International Date 5 Line time, whereby two opposed local times will be indicated simultaneously with the Greenwich and International Date Line times so as to provide for a simultaneous indication of four times in four locations about the world.

5 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,732,934- 10/1929 Giusto 58-43 RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner.

M. LORCH, Assistant Examiner.