Le Phare-jean D'eve S.a.

Conseil-ray S.a.

Michiel Groothuis

Claude Ray

A watch casing has a back and a body or middle part made in one piece, and a glass engaged in the middle part. A strap is provided with an annular central portion bearing on the glass and with diametral arms secured to hinge lugs of the casing serving for the attachment of the bracelet. Thus, the glass is retained in place even when it is only engaged frictionally in a sealing gasket located in the casing body. The removal of the glass can be effected easily by engaging a blade into a lip of the casing body and into an annular groove provided for this purpose in the lateral face of the glass.

Watch having a glass retaining strap

The chronograph hand (8) mounted on a shaft (7) carries a wheel (11) coaxial to a wheel (13) mounted on the end of a small-seconds shaft (2) extending beyond the frame (1) of the clockwork. A double sliding pinion (16-17), carried by a lever (14), can be brought into a position in which it meshes with the wheels (11 and 13), respectively, that renders them rigid to each other, thus ensuring the driving of the hand (8), or to be disengaged therefrom, that produces the uncoupling of this hand. The shaft (7) is maintained by a flexible bridge (9) of this mechanism which acts axially on the said shaft for pressing resiliently a resetting heart (10) it carries against the bearing (6) supporting the said shaft (7). A friction is thus produced on the shaft (7) which prevents any play of the hand (8). The wheel (11) is freely mounted on the shaft (7) it drives through the intermediary of a friction produced by a cumbered washer (12) owing to which the resetting can be effected without wheel (11) be driven.

Timepiece and method for its realization

An oscillatory mass operative to drive the rotor of a current generator adapted to charge a capacitor feeding the clockwork of an electronic watch is situated above the dial of the watch, which dial serves as a supporting plate for this mass. The arm of the mass is articulated at the center of the clockwork by means of a ball-bearing carried by the plate constituting the dial. The hours division is of relatively small diameter, leaving free the annular part of the dial opposite which the peripheral portion of the mass moves. The dial serves at the same time as a supporting member for the outer journal ring of a ball-bearing supporting the oscillatory mass and is secured to the frame of the clockwork by means of screws. The outer journal ring of the ball-bearing supporting the mass is rigid with a pinion meshing with a pinion of gearing coupled to the rotor of an electric generator driven by the said mass.

Watch having a visible energy producing oscillatory mass

The watch comprises a conventional timepiece movement driving the hours-hands, the minutes-hands and the seconds-hands, to which is added a chronograph module the frame of which, having the shape of a bell, covers the movement of the timepiece. The chronograph is autonomous, i.e. its indicators are not driven by the basis movement but by electric motors situated around the central movement, fed by a battery and piloted by a quartz oscillator, the frequency divisions being effected by an integrated circuit. The printed circuit associated with this whole comprises an annular plate surrounding the timepiece movement. An intermediary plate ensures the connection between the timepiece movement and the chronograph module. The transformation of a conventional timepiece movement into a chronograph watch is thus very easy, the chronograph module being able to be applied to very different timepiece movements, only the intermediary plate having to be different.

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Saint-Imier, Switzerland

Michiel Groothuis