Societe Suisse Pour L'industrie Horlogere Management Services S.a.

Eta Sa Fabriques D'ebauches

Omega Sa

Tissot Sa

Bruno Erni

Cyril Vuilleumier

Bertrand Soltermann

Pierre Schmidli

This invention is concerned with an analogue calendar watch able to display the hour, the day of the month perpetually, and whenever required, the number of the month via the day of the month display. The watch includes a first motor driving the time display in response to a time base signal, a perpetual calendar circuit including a day counter, a month counter and a year counter and receiving a daily signal supplied by a contact, a control circuit connected to the calendar circuit, and a second motor driving the day of the month display in response to a signal from the control circuit. The display of the number of the month is achieved with a reading circuit that receives from the calendar circuit signals representative of the contents of the day and month counters. The reading circuit issues to the second motor, in response to a month call signal, a control signal to change the day of the month being displayed to the number of the month, and a further control signal to move the day of the month display back to its original position.

Perpetual calendar watch having two motors

The timepiece of this invention comprises at least one hand making a revolution in twelve hours and a disc making a revolution in twenty-four hours. A crown enables simultaneous setting of the hand and disc display when pulled out to the second position. When rotated in one sense while in the first pulled-out position the crown sets the disc only. Between the disc and the hand there is interposed a speed reducer provided with a hollowed-out gear containing a jumper spring. The jumper engages a star wheel, itself fixed to a pinion which meshes with teeth borne by the disc. In operating the disc through this mechanism it is displaced through one hour intervals by the action of the end of the jumper on the teeth of the star wheel.

Universal time piece

The timepiece of the invention includes a hand for date display. This hand is driven via a calendar ring of a well-known type bearing teeth on its outer circumference. Such teeth drive intermediate gearing which in turn drives a calendar wheel fixed to the date display hand. This mechanism enables the mounting of a date displaying hand on a movement normally intended to show dates through a dial opening with minimum modifications.

Timepiece with calendar

The invention provides a positioning mechanism for a center wheel in a tiiece enabling precision positioning for the seconds or minutes hand relative to the dial divisions. It comprises a jumper spring (1) friction mounted onto the base plate and cooperating with the teeth (3) of the center wheel (4) and a wheel member (29) interposed between the center wheel (4) and the motor pinion (14). The wheel member includes a pinion (17) meshing with the center wheel as well as a gear (16) friction mounted relative to said pinion and meshing with the motor pinion. The positioning method consists of immobilizing the motor pinion then turning the center wheel to bring the end of the jumper spring into coincidence with a tooth space thereof. The invention is employed to position exactly the seconds or minutes hand of an electronic timepiece having a stepping motor.

Positioning mechanism for a center wheel

A keyboard having a matrix of keys or pushbuttons arranged in a matrix is ovided with a plurality of stationary electrical contacts arranged in a similar matrix. Movable contacts operated by the pushbuttons are provided by a plurality of ladder-shaped flexible conductive members. Each ladder-shaped member extends along one row of pushbuttons and has a 'rung' of the ladder extending through the space between a pushbutton and its associated stationary contact. The body of the keyboard is provided with grooves for inserting the ladder-shaped members and the spacing between these grooves is such that the rung portions of the member are flexed upwardly against the pushbutton and out of contact with the stationary contact when the pushbutton is in the normal position. Each flexed rung exhibits a bistable characteristic so that as a pushbutton is depressed, a point is reached at which less force is required to further depress the pushbutton. The stationary contact extends upwardly a sufficient distance to prevent the rung from assuming the second stable state. Hence, when the pushbutton is released the rung returns to its normal position and in doing so moves the pushbutton back to its normal position.

Growing community of inventors

Bienne, Switzerland

Bruno Erni