US3451211A

US3451211A - Calendar watches

Info

Publication number: US3451211A
Application number: US667453A
Authority: US
Inventors: Yasuichi Nakagawa
Original assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc
Current assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc
Priority date: 1966-11-30
Filing date: 1967-09-13
Publication date: 1969-06-24
Anticipated expiration: 1986-06-24
Also published as: DE1673663C3; GB1159896A; DE1673663A1; DE1673663B2; CH1635267A4; CH496272A

Description

June 1969 I YASUICHYI NAKAGAWA 3,451,211

CALENDAR WATCHES Sheet Filed Sept. 13, 1967 June24, 1969 I YASUICHI NAKAGAWA 3,451,211

I v CALENDAR WATCHES United States Patent Int. e1. (5041) 19/24 US. Cl. 5858 '7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Calendar watches capable of indicating the day of the week as well as the day of the month. The calendar watch has a date indicating means for indicating the day of the month and an advancing means which coacts with the date indicating means for substantially instaneously advancing the latter from one date to the next. The date indicating means and the advancing means coact with each other to provide for the date indicating means the possibility of correctional movement without interfering with the operation of the advancing means, so that not only is the date indicating -means instantaneously advanced from one date to the next but in addition it is possible to correct the date without interfering with the advancing means. The watch also includes a day indicating means for indicating the day of the week, and the same advancing means which coacts with the date indicating means coacts with the day indicating means for substantially instantaneously advancing the latter from one day of the week to the next day of the week simultaneously with the advance of the date indicating means from one day of the month to the next day of the month.

Background of the invention The invention relates to watches.

In particular, the invention relates to calendar watches. Thus, the invention relates to a calendar watch which is capable of indicating the day of the week and the day of the month, and the invention relates especially to the driving mechanisms which drive the indicators for the day of the week and the day of the month.

Conventional driving mechanisms of this type change the day of the month from one day to the next and the day of the week from one day to the next during a period which has a duration of a few hours, so that during the latter time when the indications are being changed it is not possible to determine from the watch either the day of the month or the day of the week, and in addition it is not possible to correct the calendar mechanism during this period of time so as to provide a proper indication of the day of the month, for example. Thus, during the time when the indicating structures are changing from one indicating position to the next indicating position, a pawl is in engagement with a tooth and prevents any correcting adjustments from being made at this time.

There are also known driving mechanisms which will provide a substantially instantaneous advance of the date indicating structure from one day of the month to the next day of the month, for example, but with these known mechanisms difficulties are encountered in providing an instantaneous advance of both the day of the month and the day of the week. In addition, difficulties are encountered in connection with mechanisms for correcting the settings of the indicating structure.

Summary of the invention It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a calendar watch structure of the above general type which will avoid the above drawbacks.

Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a relatively simple mechanism which is capable of operating reliably so as to provide a substantially instantaneous advance of the structure which indicates the day of the month as well as to provide a substantially instantaneous advance of the structure which indicates the day of the week.

Furthermore, it is an object of the invention to provide a structure which will simultaneously provide instantaneous advances of the indicating structures which respectively indicate the day of the month and the day of the week.

Also, it is one of the more important objects of the present invention to provide a construction which will permit correctional adjustments of the structure which indicates the day of the month to be carried out without in any way interfering with the structure which provides the substantially instantaneous advance of the indicating structure.

Thus, in accordance with the invention the calendar watch includes a date indicating means for indicating the day of the month and an advancing means which coacts with the date indicating means for advancing the latter substantially instantaneously from a position indicating one day of the month to a position indicating the next day of the month. This date indicating means and the advancing means which coacts therewith coact with each other to provide for the date indicating means freedom for correctional movement with respect to the advancing means without interfering with the latter, so that it is possible to make the corrections of the day indicated by the date indicating means without interfering with the advancing means.

Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the constructions hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.

Brief description of the drawings For a fuller understanding of the invention, reference 1s had to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary top plan view of the structure of the invention; and

FIG. 2 is a transverse section of the structure of FIG. 1 taken along 22 of FIG. 1.

Description of preferred embodiments Referring now to the drawings, the calendar mechanism illustrated therein includes an advancing means formed in part by a rotary driving gear 3 which is driven through an intermediate gear 2 by means of an hour wheel -1 which is driven in a conventional manner by the movement of the Watch. The transmission between the hour wheel 1 and the gear 3 is such that the gear 3 turns through a single revolution in 24 hours. Thus, one rotation of the wheel 3 will correspond to one day. This driving gear 3 is formed with an arcuate slot 5 passing therethrough and gazing the configuration most clearly apparent from The drive gear 3 is journaled on a stationary bearing pin which also serves to support for free rotary movement with respect to the gear 3 a cam '4 of the advancing means, this cam 4 being freely turna-ble with respect to as well as coaxial with the driving gear 3. The advancing means includes a pin 6 which is fixedly carried by the cam 4, which extends parallel to the turning axis of the cam 4 and the wheel 3, and which projects downwardly below the cam 4 into the slot 5' of the wheel 3 as well as upwardly beyond the cam 4. At its upper end which projects beyond the cam 4, the pin 6 is received in an opening of a swing lever 7 of the advancing means. Thus, the drive is transmitted through the pin 6 to the swing lever 7. This lever 7 is formed with an elongated arcuate slot 8 the configuration of which is clearly apparent from FIG. 1, and this slot 8 receives a stationary pin 9 which is fixedly carried by the base plate of the watch, as is apparent from FIG. 2. The pin 9 extends parallel to the pin 6 and coacts with the slot 8 to guide the swing lever 7 for shifting and swinging movement as the pin 6 turns along a circular path determined by the rotary movement of the gear 3. At its right end, as viewed in the drawings, the swing lever 7 terminates in a tooth F which engages a tooth of a gear 14 for advancing the latter in a manner described below. This gear 14 has rigidly fixed thereto a rotary disc v15' which carries indicia indicating the days of the week, so that the toothed wheel 14 and the disc 15 form an indicating means for indicating the days of the week.

The swing lever 7 fixedly carries at the region of its end which is distant from the tooth F three pins 18, 19 and 20 which project downwardly from the lever 7. The pin 18 serves to pivotally support a pawl 10' of the advancing means, this pawl terminating at its outer end in a pawl tooth C. The date indicating means is in the form of a rotary ring member 16 carrying at its upper face numerals which indicate the day of the month and which are visible through a suitable opening one after the other. At its inner periphery the date indicating means includes the teeth which are illustrated at the upper life portion of FIG. 1, these teeth being adapted to be acted upon by the pawl 10 and each tooth having a radial edge and an opposite inclined edge which is inclined in the manner shown in FIG. 1 with respect to the radial edge. A spring 11 is connected at one end to the pin 20 and at the other end is connected with the pawl 10 so as to urge the latter to turn in a clockwise direction about the pivot 18, as viewed in FIG. 1, into engagement with the pin 19, which thus acts as a stop for the pawl '10 limiting its turning in a clock-wise direction, as viewed in FIG. 1. While FIG. 1 only indicates the numerals 1-4 of the days of the month, it is to be understood that the numerals 1-31 are distributed about the ring 16 of the date-indicating means.

The advancing means further includes a driving lever 12 in the form of a bell crank, as shown in FIG. 1. This lever 12 is situated beneath the date ring 16 and is supported for turning movement by a pin 17. The lever 12 forms a spring-pressed drive, and for this purpose it is acted upon by a spring 13 which urges the lever '12 in a clockwise direction about the pin 17, as viewed in FIG. 1. The spring 13 is situated in a recess of the base plate. The drive lever 12 has an end portion B of substantially triangular configuration which engages the outer periphery of the cam 4 against which the lever 12 is pressed by the spring 13.

The structure of the invention further includes a springpressed detent lever 22 which has a detent tooth of relatively wide V-shaped configuration urged into the space between a pair of successive teeth of the ring 16 by the spring 21 which acts on the lever 22 in the manner shown at the upper part of FIG. 1. Thus, with this detent structure one of the numerals which indicate the day of the month will be precisely situated with respect to a window through which the numeral is visible. The structure of the invention includes a second detent lever 24 having a detent tooth of relatively wide V-shaped configuration which extends into the space between a pair of successive teeth of the toothed Wheel 14 of the day indicating means which indicates the day of the week. A spring 23 acts on the lever 24 so as to urge its detent tooth inthe manner shown in FIG. 1 into engagement with the toothed wheel 14, and thus one of the days of the week indicated on the top face Of the disc will always be precisely in registry with an .4 opening through which this day of the week will be visible. Thus, both of the detent levers '22 and 24 are respectively provided with substantially triangular detent portions which extend between and engage a pair of teeth of the date ring 16 and day wheel 14, respectively, under the influence of the springs 21 and 23, respectively. As a result both the date ring and the day wheel are reliably maintained in a stable position.

As was indicated above, the driving gear 3 will turn through one complete revolution in 24 hours as a result of the transmission of rotary movement to the gear 3 through the intermediate gear 2 which is in turn driven by the hour wheel 1. The left end of the slot 5 of the Wheel 3, as viewed in FIG. 1, engages the pin 6 at its portion which projects downwardly beyond the cam 4, so "that the rotary movement of the gear 3 is transmitted to the cam 4 in this way, and of course the swing lever 7 will also be driven through this drive of the invention. As the cam 4 turns in a clockwise direction, as indicated by the arrow in FIG. 1, its outer spiral periphery which engages the end of the drive 'lever 12 which is pressed against this periphery by the spring 13 constantly displaces the portion B of the drive lever 12 away from the turning axis of the cam 4 while the end A of the cam 4, where this cam terminates in a sharp edge, approaches the portion B of the lever 12. During the turning of the pin 6 around the axis of the cam 4, the lever 7 moves longitudinally at its slot 8 along the stationary pin 9 while also swinging about the latter. The movement transmitted to the swing lever 7 is such that the tooth C of the pawl 10 describes a closed path of substantially ova-l configuration as indicated at the upper left portion of FIG. 1, and the tooth C moves along this closed path in a counterclockwise direction, as indicated by the arrow, the tooth C moving once through this entire path during a period of 24 hours. Simultaneously the tooth F at the other end of the swing lever 7 describes a substantially oval path along which the tooth F moves in :a clockwise direction, as shown by the arrow provided on the dot-dash line substantially oval path of the tooth -F indicated in FIG. 1, and in this case also the tooth F will move once through the entire closed oval path in a period of 24 hours.

When the end A of the cam 4 reaches the tip of the end B of the lever 12, the tooth C is at the position D indicated in FIG. 1 while at the same time the tooth F is at the position G indicated in FIG. 1. At this instant when the outermost end of the spiral camming surface at the outer periphery of the cam 4 rides beyond the tip of the end B of the lever 12, this lever 12 is suddenly and forcefully turned in a clockwise direction about the pin 17, and the inclination of the end of the lever 12 which engages the outermost end of the spiral camming periphcry of the cam 4 is such that this sudden clockwise turning of the lever 12 produces a sudden clockwise thrust on the cam 4, turning it together with the pin 6 with respect to the gear 3 so that the pin 6 moves freely in a clockwise direction along the slot 5 toward the right end thereof, as viewed in FIG. 1. The swing lever 7 of course participates in this sudden movement of the cam 4, and the result is that the tooth C of the pawl 10 is substantially instantaneously advanced by this advancing means of the invention from the position D to the position E, while simultaneously the tooth F is substantially instantaneously advanced from the position G to the position H. As a result the date indicating means 16 is substantially instantaneously advanced from a position where it indicates one day of the month to a position where it indicates the next day of the month and simultaneously the day wheel 14 is substantially instantaneously advanced from a position where it indicates one day of the week to a position where it indicates the next day of the week. Immediately subsequent to these substantially instantaneous increments of turning movement of the ring 16 and wheel 14, the tooth C of the pawl 10 is situated between a pair of teeth of the ring 16 and the tooth F of the lever 7 is situated between a pair of teeth of the wheel 14, and they act to prevent the ring 16 and the wheel 14 from advancing by increments of two teeth instead of one.

When the tooth C of the pawl 10 advances from the position D to the position B, it engages a radial edge of a tooth of the ring 16 to advance the latter by a distance of one tooth. It is possible, however, at any time for the ring 16 to be turned in a counter-clockwise direction, as viewed in FIG. 1, so that the other inclined edge of a tooth of the ring 16 engages the tooth C of the pawl 10 to turn the latter in opposition to the spring 11 in a counter-clockwise direction, as viewed in FIG. 1, away from the stop 19, so that in this way the date indicating means and advancing means of the invention coact with each other to provide for the date indicating means freedom of correctional movement without intertering in any way with the proper operation of the advancing means. Thus, with the structure of the invention the date ring 16 can at any time 'be turned, through a suitable unillustrated correcting mechanism in a counterclockwise direction, as viewed in FIG. 1, until a desired numeral appears through the window, and at this time the teeth of the ring 16 will simply ride past the pawl 10 swinging the latter without in any way interfering with the position of the swing lever 7. Moreover, it will he noted that with the structure of the invention because of the substantially instantaneous advance of the date and day indicating means, only one numeral of the date indicating means and one day of the day indicating means are visible at any given time, so that there is no confusion about proper determination of the date and day since there are no extensive periods of time during which a pair of numeral-s or a pair of days are simultaneously visible during a slow change from one indication to the next indication, as is conventional at the present time with many known calendar watches.

Therefore, with the structure of the invention it is possible to combine both instantaneous change in the indications and the possibility of carrying out corrections without interfering with the operation of the structure.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those made apparent from the preceding description, are efficiently attained and, since certain changes may be made in the above constructions Without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed is:

1. In a calendar watch, movable date indicating means for indicating the day of the month, and advancing means coacting with said date indicating means for substantially instantaneously advancing the latter from one date to the next, said date indicating mean and said advancing means coacting with each other for providing for said date indicating means of freedom of correctional moveent with respect to said advancing means without interfering with the operation of the latter, so that the date indicated by said date indicating means can be corrected without influencing the coaction between said advancing means and said date indicating means, wherein said date indicating means includes a rotary member having teeth along a periphery thereof and said advancing means including a swing lever, a pawl turnably carried thereby and having a free end for coacting with said teeth of said date indicating means, a stop carried by said swing lever and engaged by said pawl for limiting the turning thereof in one direction, and a spring carried by said swing lever and engaging said pawl for urging the latter into engagement with said stop, so that said pawl can be turned away from said stop in a direction opposite to said one direction in opposition to said spring, each of said teeth of said date indicating means having a substantially radial edge engaged by said pawl and pressing the latter against said stop when said swing lever turns to act through said pawl on said date indicating means to advance the latter from one date to the next and each of said teeth having a second inclined edge which when said date indicating means is turned in a given direction engages said pawl to move the latter in opposition to said spring in said opposite direction so that said pawl then turns with respect to said swing lever without influencing the position of the latter during correctional movement of said date indicating means.

2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said advancing means includes a rotary driving gear, a cam located next to said driving gear coaxially therewith and freely turnable with respect thereto, and a pin fixed to said cam and connected with said swing lever, said driving gear being formed with a slot through which said pin extends, and said pin extending parallel to the common turning axi of said cam and driving gear, one end of the slot of the latter engaging said pin to act through said pin on said cam and swing lever for driving both said cam and said swing lever, and a spring-pressed driving lever engaging said cam and substantially instantaneously ad'- vancing the latter together with said pin toward the other end of said slot of said driving gear when said cam reaches a given angular position, so that said driving lever will provide through said swing lever, and said pawl carried thereby, a substantially instantaneous advance of said date indicating means from one date to the next,

3. The combination of clam 2 and wherein said cam has a spiral-shaped camming surface terminating in a sharp edge, and said driving lever driving said cam when said sharp edge turns beyond said driving lever.

4. The combination of claim 2 and wherein said springpressed driving lever is in the form of a bell crank having one end engaging said cam, and a spring engaging the opposite end of said bell crank for urging said one end thereof into engagement with said cam.

5. The combination of claim 2 and wherein said swing lever is formed intermediate its ends with an elongated slot, and a stationary pin received in said slot to guide said swing lever for swinging movement, said pawl being located at the region of one end of said swing lever and describing a closed path of predetermined configuration during movement of said swing lever.

6. The combination of claim 5 and wherein said swing lever has a driving tooth situated at an end thereof distant from said pawl, and day-indicating mean for indicating the day of the week, said day-indicating means being acted upon by said tooth of said swing lever for being substantially instantaneously advanced thereby from one. day of the week to the next day of the week.

7. The combination of claim 6 and wherein said tooth of said swing lever also describes a predetermined closed path of given configuration during movement of said swing lever.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,671,307 3/1954 Imhof 58-58 2,757,507 8/ 1956 Boyles 585 3,248,868 5/1966 Polo et al. 58-58 3,360,922 1/1968 Rogers 5858 3,367,104 2/1968 Rogers 5858 FOREIGN PATENTS 529,393 11/1940 Great Britain,

646,380 11/1950 Great Britain.

367,760 4/ 1963 Switzerland.

RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner.

G. H. MILLER, 1a., Assistant Examiner.