Junghans Uhren Gmbh

Wolfram Hodapp

Wolfgang Ganter

Jurgen Allgaier

Roland Maurer

Arthur Kopf

Hanna Brummack

A radio timepiece is disclosed which receives and decodes a time information signal from a remote transmitter and displays a time information. The timepiece includes a manual time zone switching circuitry deigned to permit use of the timepiece in time zones adjacent to the one in which the transmitter is located, while providing a user-friendly selection and display of the time information. The timepiece includes an electro-optical display providing a cartographical representation of the transmitter time zone and several adjacent time zones. A summing register is provided to manually offset the received time information and actuate a graphic display indicative of the time zone to which the offset time display corresponds. The summing register may be cyclically incremented by a single switch, or incremented, decremented or zeroed by appropriate actuation of two switches.

Radio timepiece

A autonomous radio timepiece (11), in particular in the form of a small travel clock or a wristwatch, is designed to operate for an extended period of time with a small battery, and to provide a reliable time display when traveling outside the reception range of a transmitter of coded time telegrams set for a certain geographical time zone. The timepiece casing (20) is equipped with a multifuncton switching device (21) and an associated decoder (23), which evaluates the combination of the momentary actuation of push buttons (22). It is thus possible by means of the switching device (21) to switch into a power saving storage state if the timepiece is not in use, and to return to normal operations.

Autonomous radio timepiece

An autonomous radio timepiece (1), in particular small, portable timepiece such as a travel alarm clock or a wrist watch includes a display (25) of the prevailing radio field intensity. The display (25) is capable of simultaneously signaling the actuation of a receiver (14) for the decoding of absolute time information and is conveniently combined, in the form of a bar graph, with day indicator flags adjacent a day-of-the-week display (26). When operating outside the time zone for which the transmitter emits the coded absolute time information, the time piece may be manually switched to the instantaneously prevailing time zone. The number of time zone changes may be entered and displayed, or the prevailing hour (H) of the time zone involved is entered, from which an electro-mechanical time display (18) then continues to advance.

An autonomous radio controlled timepiece having a display for displaying information relative to receiving conditions to provide the consumer with increased assurance regarding the accuracy of the instantaneous time display. For this purpose, an analog or digital, optionally multidigit display element is provided, which displays supplemental information concerning the quality of reception, expressed as an indication of the period of time elapsed since the most recent monitoring and possible correction of the time display, the correction based on the information received by radio and decoded. The display element offers the lowest possible display value if the radio reception conditions are good enough that each actuation of the receiver leads to the acquisition of usable time information. The degree of certainty in the accuracy of the time display predisposes the timepiece to be used as an alarm clock in particular, in which case the alarm clock need only be equipped with setting elements for preselecting the time of alarm, for an alarm interruption or deactivation, and optionally for the switching of a supplemental display between displaying the preselected time of alarm and date information obtained from the radio information.

Autonomous radio controlled timepiece

An autonomous radio timepiece having a time equalizing processor to control and potentially correct the instantaneous time indication on the basis of the prevailing time information received by radio transmission, is equipped with an improved device for temporarily interrupting operation of the time indication. Such a device is provided for the purpose of interrupting the display function of the radio timepiece without deactivating the other auxiliary and operating functions of the radio timepiece, so that following termination of the interruption, normal operation continues without any interference. The display may be interrupted indirectly or directly. In the first case the reset inlet of the time equalizing processor is actuated to trigger the synchronizing process, which otherwise takes place upon the actuation of the radio timepiece. In the other case, the actuation of the display indexing device is electrically blocked in order to temporarily retain a predefined, just attained position of the gear (for example, to provide sufficient time to mount the hands of the display device during assembly of the radio timepiece).

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Schenkenzell, Germany

Wolfram Hodapp