The Swatch Group Research and Development Ltd

Montres Breguet S.a.

Eta Sa Manufacture Horlogere Suisse

Dominique Lechot

Gianni Di Domenico

Jerome Favre

Jean-Jacques Born

Baptiste Hinaux

Pascal Winkler

Jean-Luc Helfer

Olivier Matthey

Michel Willemin

Alain Zaugg

Beat Gilomen

Marc Stranczl

Pierre Cusin

Jérôme Favre

Alex Gandelhman

Cedric Nicolas

Laurent Klinger

Patrick Ragot

Benoît Légeret

Jean-Claude Martin

Yvan Ferri

Lionel Paratte

Jean-Philippe Rochat

Laurent Nagy

Stefan Rombach

Donald William Corson

Alain Vuilleumier

Fanel Piccini

Thierry Conus

Davide Sarchi

Yves Winkler

Nicolas Francois

Benoit Legeret

Andrés Cabezas Jurin

Raphaël Courvoisier

Mohammad Hussein Kahrobaiyan

Ahmad Odeh

Christophe Vincent

A horological resonator mechanism includes a structure and an anchoring unit from which at least one inertial element arranged to oscillate along a first degree of freedom in rotation about a pivoting axis extending along a first direction is suspended. The inertial element is subjected to return forces that make the inertial element oscillate. The mechanism includes a stopper to stop the inertial element that can be actuated on demand to prevent the oscillations of the inertial element. The stopper moves the inertial element between a pivoting position and a stopping position in which the inertial element cannot oscillate.

Horological resonator mechanism equipped with inertial element stopping means

Method for adjusting the rate of a basic oscillator of a watch arranged to oscillate at a nominal frequency N0, with a master oscillator generating an excitation frequency NE approximately equal to an integer multiple of this nominal frequency N0, the master oscillator subjecting the watch to excitation or a modulated motion during a transition phase after which the basic oscillator is stabilised at the excitation frequency NE, and a state of display correction method with a winder for mechanical or automatic watches, moving a support carrying the watch and comprising a state of display correction oscillator, having a lower variation of rate value than the initial variation of rate value DI of this basic oscillator, and oscillating at a correction frequency NC to impose oscillation or a motion on the watch, during a state of display correction phase whose duration is adjusted to exactly correct a state of display error measured at the initial moment of actuation.

Device and method for adjusting the rate and correcting the state of display of a watch

A rotary wheel set system of a horological movement with a rotary wheel set a first and a second bearing for a first and a second pivot of the arbor of the rotary wheel set, the wheel set including a mass center in a position of its arbor, the first bearing including an endstone including a main body equipped with a conical cavity configured to receive the first pivot of the arbor of the rotary wheel set, the first pivot being capable of cooperating with the cavity of the endstone to rotate in the cavity, at least one contact zone between the first pivot and the cavity being generated, the normals of the contact zone forming a minimum contact angle relating to the plane perpendicular to the arbor of the pivot, the minimum contact angle being less than or equal to 30°, preferably less than or equal to arctan (½).

Rotary wheel set system of a horological movement

A horological resonator mechanism, including a structure carrying, via a flexible suspension, an anchor unit from which is suspended an inertial element oscillating about a pivot axis extending in a first direction Z, in a first degree of rotational freedom RZ, under the effect of the return forces of a flexure pivot including longitudinal elastic strips, each fixed to the inertial element and to the anchor unit, the flexible suspension allowing the anchor unit to move in five degrees of freedom, this resonator is a composite assembly made of at least two different materials, on the one hand for the flexure pivot, and on the other hand for the flexible suspension.

Shock protection of a resonator mechanism with rotary flexure bearing

A timepiece resonator mechanism (), including a structure () carrying, by a flexible suspension (), an anchoring block () from which is suspended an inertial element () oscillating about a pivot axis (D) extending in a first direction Z, according to a first rotational degree of freedom RZ, under the action of return forces of a flexible pivot () including elastic longitudinal strips () each fixed to said inertial element () and to said anchoring block (), the resonator mechanism including a viscous substance () arranged at least partly around the flexible suspension (), the viscous substance () being configured to at least partly dissipate the energy due to a shock.

Shock-resistant protection provided with a viscous substance for a resonator mechanism with rotary flexible guide

A horological resonator mechanism, including a structure and an anchoring unit from which is suspended at least one inertial element arranged to oscillate along a first degree of freedom in rotation RZ about a pivoting axis extending along a first direction Z, the inertial element being subjected to return forces exerted by a virtual pivot including a plurality of substantially longitudinal elastic strips, each fastened, at a first end to the anchoring unit, and at a second end to the inertial element. Each elastic strip is deformable essentially in a plane XY perpendicular to the first direction Z. The anchoring unit is suspended from the structure by a flexible suspension arranged to allow the mobility of the anchoring unit along a plurality of degrees of freedom including at least two in the plane XY, along a direction X and along a direction Y orthogonal to the direction X.

Shockproof protection with banking of a rotary flexible guidance resonator mechanism

A horological movement including a mechanical resonator and a hybrid escapement including an escapement wheel and a pallet assembly with at least one magnetic pallet-stone formed of a magnet and associated with a mechanical banking, the escapement wheel including a periodic magnetised structure defining increasing gradients of magnetic potential energy for the magnetic pallet-stone, and protruding parts associated with the increasing gradients of magnetic potential energy. When the force torque is equal to a nominal force torque or has a value within at least an upper part of a given range of values, one of the protruding parts of the escapement wheel is subjected to at least one shock on the mechanical banking of the pallet assembly after the magnetic pallet-stone has climbed any one of the increasing gradients of magnetic potential energy, thus dissipating at least partially a kinetic energy of the escapement wheel.

Horological movement comprising an escapement provided with a magnetic system

The horological movement includes a mechanical resonator and an escapement including an escapement wheel, which has a plurality of teeth, and an anchor formed by a stick and two arms having respectively two mechanical pallets likely to come into contact, when the anchor is subject to an alternative movement, with any of the teeth according to the angular position of the escapement wheel. To avoid damage to the escapement during rocking of the anchor while the escapement wheel is positioned in an unfavourable angular position, the anchor is arranged, during the rocking of this anchor, to be able to bend being subjected to an elastic deformation. The anchor has an elastic capacity between each of the two mechanical pallets and a fork of the anchor, enabling it to absorb elastically, during the elastic deformation, a maximum mechanical energy that the mechanical resonator can have during the normal functioning of the horological movement.

Mechanical horological movement provided with an escapement comprising an anchor

A horological movement includes an escapement with a magnetic system to generate magnetic force impulses, so as to sustain the oscillation of the mechanical resonator associated with the escapement. In order to make possible an effective self-starting of the assembly formed of the mechanical resonator and of the escapement during a winding of the barrel, after a stop of the horological movement due to the unwound barrel spring, the escape wheel includes teeth and the pallet assembly includes two mechanical pallet-stones arranged to receive, upon starting, at least one mechanical force impulse of the escape wheel via one of the teeth thereof, the mechanical force impulse generating a starting force torque on the pallet assembly that is transmitted to the balance of the mechanical resonator to begin an oscillation of the latter so that the assembly can operate normally after a starting phase.

Horological movement comprising an escapement equipped with a magnetic system

A rotary wheel set system of a horological movement with a rotary wheel set, a first and a second bearing, for a first and a second pivot of the arbor of the rotary wheel set, the wheel set including a mass center in a position of its arbor, the first bearing including an endstone including a main body equipped with a pyramidal cavity configured to receive the first pivot of the arbor of the rotary wheel set, the cavity having at least three faces giving its pyramidal shape, the first pivot being capable of cooperating with the cavity of the endstone to rotate in the cavity, at least one contact zone between the first pivot and a face being generated, the normal at the contact zone or zones forming a contact angle (α) relating to the plane perpendicular to the arbor of the pivot, wherein the contact angle (α) is less than 45°.

Inertia mobile component () for a horological resonator (), oscillating about an axis of oscillation (D), and including at least one magnetic area (), the total resultant magnetic moment of all of the magnetic areas (), included in the inertia mobile component (), is aligned in the direction of the axis of oscillation (D), this inertia mobile component () bearing at least one magnetic compensating element (), the magnetisation component thereof in a direction perpendicular to the axis of oscillation (D) can be adjusted in order to obtain a total resultant magnetic moment that is aligned in the direction of the axis of oscillation (D).

Inertia mobile component for horological resonator with magnetic interaction device insensitive to the external magnetic field

Horological resonator () including an inertia mobile component () oscillating about an axis of oscillation (D) and including at least one magnetic area (), the total resultant magnetic moment of all of the magnetic areas (), included in the inertia mobile component (), is aligned in the direction of the axis of oscillation (D), this inertia mobile component () bearing at least one balancing magnet (), the direction of the magnetic moment thereof crosses the axis of oscillation (D) to obtain magnetic balancing of the inertia mobile component ().

A bearing for an arbor or staff of a rotary wheel set of a timepiece movement, the bearing including a bearing block provided with a housing and an endstone arranged inside the housing, the endstone having a main body provided with a cavity configured to receive a pivot of the arbor of the rotary wheel set, the pivot having the shape of a first cone having a first solid angle, the apex of the first cone being rounded with a predefined first radius of curvature in a range from 0.2 &#x3bc;m to 50 &#x3bc;m, the cavity having a second cone shape with a second solid angle, greater than the first solid angle, so that the pivot can rotate in the cavity, the apex of the second cone being rounded and having a predefined second radius of curvature. The second radius of curvature is smaller than the first radius of curvature.

Bearing, particularly a shock absorber, and rotary wheel set of a timepiece movement

An oscillator includes a resonator, which has an inertial mass returned by an elastic return and carries entry and exit pallets cooperating with teeth of an escape wheel each provided with a magnet. Each pallet includes a magnetic arrangement, with an annular sector, centred on the axis of oscillation of the resonator, defining a first magnetic barrier area extending above and/or below a mechanical pallet-stone of the entry pallet or exit pallet, over the entire length of this mechanical pallet-stone acting as support for the teeth during the supplementary arc, in order to form a magnetic cylinder escapement mechanism.

Optimised magneto-mechanical timepiece escapement mechanism

A chronograph mechanism includes an energy accumulator, a regulating system, and a gear train connecting the energy accumulator to the regulating system. The energy accumulator is formed by a strip-spring and includes a device for driving the gear train arranged to regulate the torque delivered by the strip-spring.

Growing community of inventors

Les Reussilles, Switzerland

Dominique Lechot