Citizen Watch Company, Ltd.

Yoshiaki Kato

Singo Ichikawa

Tetsuo Satoh

Toshio Umemoto

Kenichi Yoshikawa

Jinro Motoki

Harumi Yuyama

Hiromi Ishikawa

Makoto Koshikawa

Tutomu Ojima

An IC card such as cash card is disclosed. The IC card has a RAM, a control circuit for controlling access to the RAM, and a power supply circuit receiving outside energy and supplying power to the RAM and the control circuit. A first voltage detector produces a starting output when supply voltage of the power exceeds a predetermined first reference voltage. A second voltage detector produces a control signal when the supply voltage exceeds a predetermined second reference voltage, which is higher than the first reference voltage. An AND gate is provided to produce a RAM control signal for operating the RAM when the starting signal and the control signal are applied thereto.

Noncontacting IC card supplied with power from an outside source

A hand type musical timepiece, namely, an analog musical timepiece comprising a hand adapted to be driven by a step motor for the visual indication of tones of a melody, a staff or a pattern of a keyboard formed on a plane extending adjacently to an imaginary plane to be swept by the hand, a melody playing device, and a normal-reverse rotation controller to move the hand in synchronism with the melody so that the hand indicates the position corresponding to the individual tone of the melody on the staff or on the keyboard. The time indicating operation and the tone indicating operation of the hand and the mode changeover operation are controlled by an exclusive circuit designed therefor and a programmed microcomputer.

Hand type musical timepiece

A liquid crystal display device for a world time electronic timepiece in which a display of world time is made by a liquid crystal display device, with various locations on a world map being selectable for display of local time, a corresponding marker on the world map being caused to flash to indicate selection and the name of the selected location being displayed in abbreviated form simultaneously with the local time at the selected location.

Liquid crystal display device for world time wristwatch

A solid state watch module construction including a plastic substrate and an electro-optical display cell directly mounted on the substrate. The substrate has an integrated circuit chip on one side thereof, and a plurality of printed circuit leads connected to electrical terminals of the integrated circuit chip. The electro-optical display cell has a plurality of electric terminals formed in rows in alignment with terminal ends of said printed circuit leads. The electro-optical display cell is bonded to the one side of the substrate and the electric terminals of the display cell are bonded to the terminal ends of the printed circuit leads.

Solid state watch module construction

An electronic timepiece having time indicating hands driven by a stepping motor, means for detecting an internal condition such as battery voltage, pulse generating means for generating one or more pulses which are added to the time unit signal pulses applied to the stepping motor if the detected condition changes, and an indication disk which is periodically rotated by the stepping motor and which displays a pattern through a viewing aperture which varies depending upon whether additional pulses have been applied to the stepping motor or not.

Electronic timepiece with indication disk for internal state of timepiece

An electronic timepiece equipped with a battery life warning system, in which an output voltage of a battery are detected under a heavy load condition and a light load condition. In a first preferred embodiment, a time indicating means effects a display of time in a first predetermined more to provide an initial warning of the battery life when the output voltage drops below a first predetermined level during the heavy load condition and also effects of the display of time in a second predetermined mode to provide a second warning of the battery life when the output voltage of the battery drops below a second predetermined level lower than the first predetermined level. In a second preferred embodiment, when the output voltage of the battery drops below the first predetermined level, a drive signal for driving the time indicating means is produced so as to drive the time indicating means with a sufficient driving energy substantially equal to that of a drive signal being produced when there is no voltage drop in the battery. When the output voltage of the battery drops below the second predetermined level, a control signal is applied to the time indicating means, which is consequently rendered to display the time information in a modulated form for thereby providing a warning of the battery life.

Electronic timepiece equipped with battery life display

Pulse motor driving system for use in a timepiece. The driving system has a single phase coil and permanent rotor which are stepped in a forward direction by a forward rotation driving voltage. The voltage is composed of a plurality of pulses having the same polarity. Provision is made for a control circuit connected between a frequency divider and pulse motor driving circuit. The control circuit applies a plurality of driving voltage pulses for rotating the rotor of the pulse motor in the reverse direction. The control circuit also can provide accelerated pulses to the movement of the rotor in the reverse direction thereby stepping the rotor in the reverse direction. This enables the lag of gaining hands thereby correcting the time display in preciseness.

Growing community of inventors

Higashimurayama, Japan

Yoshiaki Kato