US3427799A

US3427799A - Spring-loaded instantaneous date indicator stepper and indexer

Info

Publication number: US3427799A
Application number: US612949A
Authority: US
Inventors: Rene Besson
Original assignee: Ebauches SA
Current assignee: Ebauches SA
Priority date: 1966-02-22
Filing date: 1967-01-31
Publication date: 1969-02-18
Anticipated expiration: 1986-02-18
Also published as: DE1548135C3; DE1548135A1; GB1103298A; CH256366A4; FR1511339A; DE1548135B2; CH458216A

Abstract

1,103,298. Calendar timepieces. EBAUCHES S.A. Jan. 24, 1967 [Feb. 22, 1966], No. 3598/67. Heading G3T. The control mechanism for the date indicator 1 of a calendar timepiece comprises two coaxial wheels 7, 11 rotatable at slightly different speeds and connected together by a spring 14 which becomes stressed as the angular displacement between the wheels increases, the wheel 7 being released once every twenty four hours whereupon its abrupt rotation indexes the date indicator one step forward. Pinions 8 and 13, fastened together on a hub 8a, drive the wheels 7 and 11 respectively, the wheel 7 having more teeth than the wheel 11. The spring 14 is located in a recess (15), Fig. 2 (not shown) in the lower surface of the wheel 11 and the ends 14a, 14b of the spring are bent at right angles to engage sector shaped openings 17 and 18 in the wheels 11 and 7 respectively. Initially the openings 17, 18 are aligned, but as the pinion 13 drives the wheel 11 at one revolution in twenty four hours, the wheel 7 is driven at a slightly slower speed by the pinion 8. The openings 17, 18 are relatively displaced and the spring stressed until a cut away segment 19 of the wheel 7 releases the wheel from its pinion 8. The sudden rotation of the wheel 7 then causes its pin 6 to engage teeth 5 of the date indicator which is advanced by one step. A detent 4 locates the indicator 1 in each position. To conserve power in an electric timepiece, the detent 4 may be raised at the moment of advancing the indicator, the pin 6 remaining in the path of the teeth 5 at the end of the operation to prevent the indicator advancing two teeth at a time.

Description

Feb. 18, 1969 BESSQN 3,427,799

SPRING-LOADED INSTAN'I'ANEOUS DATE INDICATOR STEPPER AND INDEXER Filed Jan. 31, 1967 INVENTOR Rene BESSO/Y BY Mfg ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,427,799 SPRING-LOADED INSTANTANEOUS DATE INDICATOR STEPPER AND INDEXER Ren Besson, Les Loges, Les Hauts-Geneveys, Switzerland, assignor to Ebauches S.A., Neuchatel, Canton of Neuchatel, Switzerland, a firm of Switzerland Filed Jan. 31, 1967, Ser. No. 612,949 Claims priority, applicatior6l S/v6vi6tzerland, Feb. 22, 1966, 3

US. C]. 58-58 Claims Int. Cl. G04b 19/24 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A calendar timepiece with means for the instantaneous stepping-forward of the date indicator.

The present invention relates to a calendar timepiece with a so-called instantaneous stepping-forward of the date indicator.

Timepieces of this type are in themselves already known. However, in such known timepieces, when the resetting of the date on the calendar is effected, other than by the set-hands mechanism of the timepiece, by a device that allows a very speedy re-setting of the date on the calendar, the controlling elements of the date indicator become warped, if manual re-setting of the date is carried out while the operation of the so-called instantaneous mechanism is being readied, an interval which lasts some time.

An object of the present invention is to remedy these drawbacks by providing a timepiece of the above mentioned type in which the instantaneous operation for the forward movement of the date indicator can ready itself without preventing the manual manipulation of the date re-setting device of the calendar.

The timepiece according to the invention is characterized by the fact that the date indicator control mechanism comprises two coaxial driven wheels, the first having an operational rate of one revolution every 24 bowls and the second having an operational rate of a slightly different speed, the two wheels being connected to each other by an elastic device which becomes stressed as the angular displacement between the two wheels increases due to the difference in their speeds of rotation, there being means provided for releasing the second wheel from its driving device once in each 24 hours in such a manner that such second wheel then undergoes an abrupt rotational movement under the action of the elastic connection device, in the course of which it drives the date indicator forward one step in one so-called instantaneous jump.

The accompanying drawings show, by way of example, one embodiment of the control mechanism of the invention.

In these drawings,

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a portion of a timepiece, in which only.those elements necessary for an understanding of the invention have been shown,

FIG. 2 is a sectional view along line IIII of FIG. 1, and

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a detail, analogous to that in FIG. 1, showing the elements in a different position.

The timepiece shown comprises a ring I mounted rotatively on the bottom plate 2 of the timepiece movement, on which ring the date indicators 3 are carried. It should be noted that only some of the dates have been indicated in the drawing, the total of thirty-one days of the month being distributed around the whole annular surface of the ring 1.

The ring 1 is submitted to the action of a jumper spring 4, shown diagrammatically, which co-operates with inner 3,427,799 Patented Feb. 18, 1969 teeth 5 provided on the ring for ensuring the stability of the various stationary positions of the latter.

The driving of the ring 1 is ensured by a pin 6 carried by a wheel 7 that meshes with a pinion 8, the hub 8a of which bears a wheel 9 meshing with the hour-wheel, shown partially and denoted by 10. The wheel 7 is coaxial with a wheel 11 on which it is loosely mounted. To this effect, the wheel 7 is rigid with a sleeve 12 freely engaged on the hub, denoted by 11a, of the wheel 11. This latter wheel meshes with a pinion 13 fastened on the hub 8a of the pinion 8. The gearing ratio is such that the wheel 11 turns at the rate of one revolution every 24 hours, whereas the wheel 7 turns slightly slower. To this effect, the two

pinions

8 and 13 have the same number of teeth but are of different modules, whereas the wheel 7 has a number of teeth which is greater than that of the wheel 11.

The wheels 7 and 11 are connected by a wire spring 14 in the form of an open ring accommodated in a recess 15, provided on the lower surface of the wheel 11, and held in place by a fixing plate 16 attached to a collet 11b provided on such wheel. The wheels 7 and 11 each have an opening, 17 and 18 respectively, in the form oia segment of a circle, into which openings the two tips 14a and 14b of the spring 14 project, which tips are each bent at a right angle. Finally, the wheel 7 has a sector, denoted by 19 on the drawing, which is devoid of any teeth.

The operation of the timepiece is as follows:

When the two wheels 7 and 11 are driven by the pinions 8 and 13'respectively, which are rigid with each other, there occurs between such wheels an angular displacement which increases as they advance, due to the difference in their speeds. In the course of this movement, the spring 14 becomes progressively stressed, its two tips 14a and 14b drawing closer under the effect of the pull forces exerted upon them by the wheels 7 and 11 respectively. At the moment the toothless sector 19 of the wheel 7 comes opposite the pinion 8, in the position shown in FIG. 1, the wheel 7 is released, so that it advances abruptly under the action of the connecting spring 14 to the position in which the two openings 17 and 18 are located opposite each other. In the course of this movement, the pin *6 co-operates with the teeth 5 of the ring 1 to cause this latter to advance by one step. The movement initiated by the pin 6 is completed by the jumper-spring 4.

By way of variation, an arrangement is possible in which the jumper 4 will be raised by a suitable mechanism at the moment when the advancing operation of the date ring is to be effected. Such an arrangement would be particularly advantageous in an electric timepiece in which the power reserve is small. In this case, and in order to prevent the date ring from advancing two teeth at a time, due to effects of inertia, the pin 6 is arranged to be still in the path of the teeth of the teeth 5, at the termination of the instantaneous jump of the wheel 7.

The wheel 7 is then driven round by the wheel 11, through the intermediary of the connecting spring 14, until the time when its toothless sector 19 ceases to be opposite the pinion 8. From that moment on, the driving round of the wheel 7 is once more ensured by the pinion 8, and the wheel 7 slows up in relation to the wheel 11, the spring 14 again becoming stressed.

It should be noted that, if the manual re-setting of the date of the calendar is carried out, in one direction or another, when the various elements are in the position shown in FIG. 3, in which the pin 6 is still engaged with the teeth 5 of the ring 1, the mechanism is not thereby warped, the pin 6 being then driven by the teeth 5, in one direction or the other, this producing a shifting of the wheels 7 and 11 in the course of which the spring 14 is made possible by the fact that the sector 19 is then opposite the pinion 8.

It should be noted that the period during which the instantaneous putting forward of the dates is being prepared, a period that lasts practically twenty hours, does not bring the pin 6 into the path traversed by the teeth 5.

The present mechanism has, inter alia, the advantage that the stressing of the spring which effects the instantaneous forward movement of the dates takes place over practically the whole duration of the day, and not once every 24 hours over a brief period of time, and this is advantageous from the point of view of timing the timepiece.

What I claim is:

1. In a calendar timepiece having an instantaneouslymovable type of date indicator advancing mechanism,

a control mechanism for the date indicator comprising in combination,

two coaxially-arranged driven wheels each having an opening therethrough,

the first wheel being driven at a rate of one revolution each 24 hours and the second wheel being driven at a slightly different rate, an elastic connecting device for interconnecting the first and second wheels and consisting of an open ring type 'wire spring having a pair of tips bent normal to the primary plane of the spring, each of the tips of the pair being extendable through the respective openings of the first and second wheels, with the difference in the rotational speedsof the wheels serving to stress the elastic connecting device as angular displacement between the first and second wheels increases,

means for releasing the second wheel from its driving mechanism once every 24 hours for imparting cooperatively with the elastic connecting device an abrupt rotational movement to the second wheel and for accordingly driving the date indicator one step forward in an instantaneous jump,

the openings in the first and second wheels being disposed one above the other by the springing action of the elastic connecting device with the first and second wheels at their relative angular positions of rest at the termination of the instantaneous jump.

2. In the calendar timepiece as set forth in claim 1, including a common gear train for driving the first and second wheels, with the numbers of the teeth of the first and second wheels being different for attaining the different speeds of rotation.

3. In the calendar timepiece as set forth in claim 1, including a pinion for driving the second wheel, and a toothless sector on the second wheel, with the second wheel being momentarily released as the toothless sector is disposed opposite the pinion for achieving the abrupt driving at the second wheel by the elastic connecting device.

'4. In the calendar timepiece as set forth in claim 3, the toothless sector extending over an angular distance greater than the distance of the abrupt displacement of the second wheel for driving the second wheel until its teeth again engage the pinion driving the second wheel through the first wheel and elastic connecting device.

5. In a calendar timepiece having a rotatable date-indicating ring operated once every 24 hours by energy derived from the timepiece hour-wheel and stored up during the interval when the rotatable ring is rendered non-rotative and functioning to rotate the ring through an angle sufiicient to cause a date indication on the ring at a certain point to be replaced at the certain point by the next succeeding date indication on the ring, a date indicator control mechanism comprising: a first date indicating ring driving wheel and a second wheel mounted concentrically as to each other and each having an opening therethrough, the first wheel being pinion driven by the timepiece hour wheel at a rate of one revolution each 24 hours, the second wheel being pinion driven by the timepiece hour wheel at a slightly different rate of speed, an open ring type wire spring for interconnecting the first and second wheels and having a pair of free upstanding ends extendable through the respective openings of the first and second wheels, with the dilferent rotational speeds of the first and second wheels progressively stressing the spring under the increase in the angular displacement of the wheels, means for releasing the first wheel from its driving pinion once every 24 hours and imparting thereto an abrupt rotational movement under the concomitant release of the spring tension and accordingly driving the date indicating ring one step forward in an instantaneous jump, the first and second wheels being simultaneously returned to their relative angular positions of rest with the openings in alignment one over the other at the termination of the instantaneous jump under the decreased tension of the released spring.

References Cited FOREIGN PATENTS 172,591 11/1921 Great Britain.

RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner.

G. H. MILLER, JR., Assistant Examiner.