Ebauches S.a.

Ebarches S.a.

Igor Scherrer

Pierre Hersberger

Jean-Claude Berney

Rene Besson

Fernand Chetelat

Jean-Claude Robert-Grandpierre

Reduces the consumption of an electronic time piece equipped with a motor 4 driving a display unit 5. A quartz oscillator 1 feeds a supply circuit 3 through a frequency divider 2. The supply circuit 3 of the motor and its control circuit 9 periodically decrease the pulse energy supplied to the motor in response to a reference signal 8.2 provided by a reference counter say every 60 seconds. The energy then supplied to the motor is regulated as a function of the presence or absence of a signal delivered by a detection switch 7 operated by the display unit. If the detection switch does not close, compensating pulses are fed to the motor to catch up the lost seconds and the pulse energy is stepped up.

Reduction of energy consumption of electronic timepiece

An electronic watch is set to the proper time by correction of the content of counters of the watch through the actuation of one or both of two switches. The actuation of the first one of the switches selects whether the content of the counters is to be incremented or decremented at a first speed. The subsequent actuation of the other switch performs the correction at a second higher speed in the sense selected by actuation of the first switch.

Electronic watch having correction means

A method and circuit for selecting a function of a watch. A predetermined number and a predetermined sequence of electrical code signals are user generated by two switches which are located on the watch. The code signals correspond to at least one function of the watch. The sequence of code signals is stored and the code signals occurring within a predetermined time period are counted. The count of the code signals occurring within the predetermined time period is compared to the predetermined number and the stored sequence of code signals are decoded only when the count of the code signals equals the predetermined number within the predetermined time period.

Electronic watch

An electronic timepiece havng an integrated electronic circuit including a quartz crystal oscillator, connected to a multi-stage divider, which divider supplies various outputs of various frequencies to corrector circuits, a logic circuit and a motor control circuit. The motor control circuit includes a switch to allow the timepiece to be stopped by resetting at least one stage of the divider. One of the terminals of the motor is connected to one of the stages of the divider to allow the control of the frequency of the signal issued from this stage, and, therefore, the frequency of the quartz oscillator.

Electronic circuit for a quartz crystal watch

An electronic watch having a circuit for permitting it to be stopped in a state of minimum consumption. The watch has an oscillator, a frequency divider comprising flip-flops and a display, with the display and at least some of said flip-flops being connected to a common line so that a signal applied to the common line places them in a state of minimum consumption. The circuit including a switch connected between the common line and a terminal of the power supply and at least two MOS transistors connected so as to apply the signal to the common line when the switch is closed.

Electronic circuit for electronic watch

A device for maintaining constant the amplitude of the oscillation of an electro-magnetically driven balance wheel of a timepiece, whereby a first voltage is generated of an amplitude proportional to the amplitude of oscillation of the wheel. This is compared with a reference voltage and a signal is derived corresponding in amplitude and sign with the difference. This signal is then used to control the application of driving pulses to the balance wheel. The said driving pulses are preferably much shorter than one half-period of the balance wheel.

Device for the maintenance and control of the oscillations of the

A device for correcting running of an electronic watch comprises two contactors acting on respective bistable circuits in turn acting on a combinatory circuit controlling a counter which provides binary correction information to an inhibitor circuit. The latter is arranged to inhibit a number of pulses of a pulse generator having a predetermined nominal frequency above a given value, to set the frequency at said given value prior to division to provide accurate clock pulses fed to a device for indicating the time. Successive actuation of respective contactors corresponds to increasing or decreasing the number of inhibited pulses from an approximate number stored in a programmable memory.

Growing community of inventors

Colombier, Switzerland

Igor Scherrer