Montres Rado S.a.

Eta Sa Fabriques D'ebauches

Rado Uhren Ag (rado Watch Co. Ltd.) (montres Rado Sa)

Rado Uhren Ag (montres Rado S.a.) (rado Watch Co. Ltd.)

Paul Gogniat

Eric A Loth

Renato Scarinzi

Marco Scarinzi

Francoise Albrecht

Watch

This arrangement for attaching the strands (1) of a bracelet to the watch case (3) includes, for each of the strands, at least one horn (4) attached to the caseband (10) and a lug (5) for connecting the horn to the strand. The horn comprises at least two thin plates (6) cut out to shape and juxtaposed. A part of such plates is introduced into a blind housing (7) formed in the caseband to receive a pin (8) which is introduced into a first hole provided in the caseband and second holes (15) provided in the plates in order to secure the horn to the case.

Arrangement for attaching bracelet strands to a watch case

The caseband (1) of this invention is fashioned from a contoured strip (2) which includes a profile in relief elongated in the longitudinal direction of the strip. This profile may serve a purely decorative purpose but may also have functional applications for instance that of attaching a watch crystal to the caseband. In such case the profile in relief includes projections (3) which define facing slide channels (6) into which the crystal may be introduced.

Watchcase having caseband fashioned from a contoured strip

This watch case is formed by the assembly of an upper shell (1) and of a lower shell (2) onto a caseband entirely confined within said shells, the edges (11, 12) which they exhibit being visible and substantially abuting, at least over a portion of their periphery. The shells are preferably spherical caps formed from a transparent scratch resistant material.

Watch case including two abuting shells

A cap (2) is made of sintered hard metal and has on the inside a cylindrical surface (20) and a frusto-conical surface (21) that are true ground. The cap's cylindrical surface (20) is fitted with radial play around an outer cylindrical surface (9) of an underlying middle (1) and the cap's frusto-conical surface (21) has the same inclination as a subjacent frusto-conical surface (14) on the outside of the middle. The cap (2) and the middle (1) are secured to one another by a ring of deformable material sandwiched between their cylindrical surfaces (9, 20). On the outside the cap (2) is formed over its thicker main portion (18) with a trued and polished surface (22) having the same inclination as its inside frusto-conical surface (21) such as to provide the thicker portion (18) with a parallelogrammatic cross-section.

Watch case provided with a cap of hard material

The watchcase support (1) of this invention is fashioned from a contoured strip (2) which includes a profile in relief elongated in the longitudinal direction of the strip. Such profile includes projections (3, 4) and recesses (5, 6) which form a decorative undulation. Other embodiments are described in which the profiles are functionally employed for example to attach the watchcase to the support.

Watchcase support fashioned from a contoured strip

The piece of jewelry protected by a hard metal shielding may consist of a metallic watchband composed of elements jointed to each other. In this case each one of said elements comprises a body member 61 of a material suitable for machining, such as stainless steel, and a plate 64 of sintered hard metal which is secured to body member 61 by means of plugs 65 welded against the back side of plate 64 and riveted to body member 61. The upper surface of the watchband elements is thus protected against injuries which contacts with foreign bodies could produce. Since that face of the watchband elements is practically the only one which is visible, when the watch is carried, the watchband will keep its original appearance during all the time it will be carried.

Watchcase having mechanism for securing crystal to case

The watch case including a back cover, a caseband, a crystal, the peripheral zone of which entirely covers the caseband, a casing ring including at least one packing, a pair of supports facing one another fixed to the caseband and forming therewith a slot in which the crystal may be engaged and means for displacing the casing ring in order to compress the packing against the internal surface of the crystal and block said crystal against the supports. The crystal exhibits at least in its peripheral zone a spherical form of constant thickness. The upper surface of the caseband has the form of a part of a sphere the radius of which is substantially equal to that of the internal surface of the crystal. During assembly the internal surface of the crystal is made to slide over the upper surface of the caseband with a rotational motion resulting from the sliding of a spherical surface over part of a sphere.

Watch case

The back cover of the case is provided with positioning means which determine more or less precisely the location where means external to the case must be placed in order to actuate each control mechanism. Such positioning means may for example take the form of grooves at the bottom of each of which is located a control mechanism and into which may be introduced a portion of the securing element of the bracelet. It might likewise comprise protuberances or portions in relief or cavities of more complex form, the remaining parts forming guide means for guiding the external actuating means toward such positioning means. This invention concerns electronic watches having a system of operating controls located in the back cover of their cases. The term 'system of operating controls' here designates all or part of the mechanisms or components which are available to the user in order to permit him to accomplish time setting of the watch and eventually to exercise control over supplementary functions which such watch may be capable of accomplishing, as for instance that of a calendar or alarm. Naturally this definition does not exclude cases where the system is limited to a single mechanism. This may happen when the watch is of a simple nature and intended to indicate only hours and minutes, or because it is capable of responding differently according to whether one actuates the mechanism during a very short interval or relatively long interval, or more or less frequently during a predetermined time interval.

Electronic watch with operating controls in the back cover of the case

A case for a wrist watch includes a crystal, in particular, formed from a mineral material in the shape of a spherical cap which extends over the entire upper surface of the caseband and the edge of which descends to a level below that of the dial.

The timepiece includes in addition to the hours and minutes hands a calendar mechanism comprising at least one date ring on which is placed an index. The dial includes an annular zone of transparent material through which said ring appears. In a preferred version of the invention the data indications are borne by one of the surfaces of the transparent zone. If the colors of such indications and of the ring are the same and the color of the index different from that of the indications all indications except one will be concealed--that behind which is found the index.

Timepiece with calendar

A timepiece containing, primarily, a first transparent element (1) visible from the outside of the piece, characterized in that this element has an adherent lining (2, 4) applied to at least part of its surface and assuring the attachment to that element of a decorative outer coating of hard material (3) and/or of a layer of high-temperature soldering material (5).

Timepiece having a transparent element partially covered by a coating

In the manufacture of a watch case part comprising a glass and a middle having an opening for the glass, the following operations are carried out: first, a metallic coating is deposited on a peripheral portion of the glass, then one or more elements are formed on the coating by moulding a molten material having an affinity for the metal forming the coating, whereupon the glass is secured to the middle through the intermediary of the fastening element. The fastening element may consist of a heel extending around the periphery of the glass or of fastening studs extending at right angles to the plane of the glass. In some cases the fastening element may also act as sealing element.

Method of making part of a watch case

A watchcase (1) comprising essentially a body (15) to the top surface of which is held a flat crystal (2) by means of fixation members (4) providing grooves in which the edges of the crystal are secured after having been laterally engaged therein, and a sealing strip against the perimeter of the bottom face (11) of the crystal. The grooves of the fixation members (4) are bounded by two facing surfaces between which the crystal is engaged, the top groove surface (6) bearing against the top face (8) of the crystal. The case further comprises means (12) for applying the sealing strip (10) against the bottom face (11) of the crystal only after the crystal has been engaged in the grooves.

Growing community of inventors

Bienne, Switzerland

Paul Gogniat