EP0285881A1 - Electronic analogous watch indicating the day and the date - Google Patents

Abstract

The watch includes a time-keeping circuit, a first motor, hands driven by the motor to display the time, an index that moves forward by 1/35th of a revolution per 24 hours, a stationary graduation having inscribed thereon 35 days of 5 consecutive weeks, a mobile graduation divided into 35 parts and bearing numbers 1 to 31 for the ordinals of the month, a second motor that drives the mobile graduation in steps of 1/35th of a revolution, a calendar circuit issuing a signal that is representative of the month and a signal that is representative of the year, and a correction circuit connected to the calendar circuit and issuing a control signal to the second motor. At the end of each month, the mobile graduation is moved by the second motor through N steps (N=4,5,6 or 7) such that number 1 thereon comes to lie opposite the index at the beginning of the following month. The two graduations provide the correspondence between the days of the week and the ordinals of the month for the current month whereas the index indicates the actual day of the week and ordinal of the month.

Description

The present invention relates to an analog electronic watch which comprises a perpetual calendar indicating the day of the week and the day of the month, or calendar.

Such watches are well known. They generally include, arranged behind the dial, a disc bearing the indications of the days of the week, and another disc on which are inscribed the numbers 1 to 31 indicating the dates. The two discs are driven by the movement of the watch and a window, made in the dial, reveals the indications designating the date of the current month and the corresponding day of the week.

Beside this information concerning the present day, it is often very useful, for example to fix an appointment, to have the same information for a future day. However, current analog electronic watches do not provide such an indication which, on the other hand, is given by certain mechanical calendar watches.

These mechanical watches, which have been known for a long time, have a fixed graduation, in the form of a ring, which is arranged on the dial and centered on the axis of the hands indicating the time. This graduation is divided into 35 equal parts, each part bearing the indication of a day of the week for 5 consecutive weeks. Another graduation, also divided into 35 parts, concentric with the previous graduation but able to pivot around its center in response to a manual action, carries the inscriptions of the numbers going from 1 to 31. Each number corresponds to a calendar and it is written , opposite a day of the week, in one of the 31 consecutive parts of the graduation which thus presents a free space extending over 4 days. These watches finally include an indicator hand, or index, which is driven by the movement so as to travel 1 / 35th of a turn in 24 hours around the axis of rotation of the other hands.

Under these conditions, it suffices to place, at a given moment, the indicator hand on the correct day and to manually bring the graduation bearing the numbers to the position where the corresponding calendar is opposite this hand for the watch to continue. to indicate the days of the week indefinitely, but only until the end of the current month, the dates. At the start of each month, the graduation bearing the date must be moved, for example 4 days if the past month is January, so that the indicator hand shows the first of February.

As the two graduations are visible in full, it is possible in these watches to constantly read the correspondence, for the current month, between the dates and the days of the week.

A mechanical watch of this type is described in detail for example in patent CH 332899. In this embodiment the graduation bearing the days of the week is on the dial while that which indicates the dates is placed on a pivoting glass. At the start of each month the ice must therefore be manually placed in the correct position. This maneuver is of course a constraint which is incompatible with trends towards simplification of orders in current watches, in particular electronic watches.

The present invention aims to provide an electronic analog watch having the combined advantages of the two types of watches which have just been mentioned, without having the disadvantages.

To achieve this aim, the electronic watch according to the invention is mainly remarkable in that it comprises:
- means for displaying time analogically;
- a fixed graduation in the form of a ring bearing the regularly spaced indications of the days of the week of at least 5 consecutive weeks;
- a pivoting index, mechanically coupled to the means for displaying the time, traversing on the fixed scale, in 24 hours, the distance separating a day from the following day;
- a mobile scale, concentric with the fixed scale, bearing the numbers 1 to 31 to indicate the date, these numbers being arranged in ascending numerical order so that two consecutive numbers are opposite two days following on the fixed scale;
- control means for moving the mobile scale;
- a perpetual calendar circuit providing a calendar signal; and
a correction circuit supplying, in response to the calendar signal, a correction signal to the control means for moving the mobile scale and bringing the number 1 opposite the index at the time of the passage of the watch for one month the next month.

The analog electronic watch according to the invention has the advantage of simultaneously indicating the date, the day of the month, and the correspondence between the dates and the days for the current month, without requiring manual correction of the calendar at the start of each month. .

• - la figure 1 est une vue en plan d'une forme de réalisation de la montre selon l'invention; et
• - la figure 2 montre un exemple de circuit pour la montre représentée sur la figure précédente.

Other characteristics and advantages of the watch according to the present invention will emerge from the description which follows, given with reference to the appended drawing and giving, by way of explanation but in no way limiting, an exemplary embodiment of such a watch. In these drawings, where the same references relate to similar elements:

• - Figure 1 is a plan view of an embodiment of the watch according to the invention; and
• - Figure 2 shows an example of a circuit for the watch shown in the previous figure.

A watch according to the invention, referenced 1, is shown in FIG. 1. It includes an analog display of the time composed of a dial 2 and the hands of hours, minutes and seconds, respectively referenced 3, 4 and 5. The watch also has an index 6, or hand indicating the dates and days. The index 6 is kinematically coupled to the hour hand 3 so as to traverse in 24 hours, continuously or by jumps, an angle corresponding to the 35th part of a revolution of the dial. All these needles are driven by a motor around the same axis of rotation. The watch can advantageously also have a indicator hand 7 months, driven around its own axis of rotation by a motor provided for this purpose.

On the dial 2 are arranged, in addition to the hour markers, a fixed graduation 8, divided into 35 equal parts, each part bearing the indication of a day, Monday, Tuesday, etc., of 5 consecutive weeks, i.e. a total of 35 days, and a movable scale 9, carried by a disc pivoting around the same axis as hands 3, 4, 5 and 6. The scale 9 is also divided into 35 equal parts, of which 31 consecutive parts bear the numbers of 1 to 31, inscribed in ascending order opposite and in the same direction as the rest of the days of the week on the graduation 8. In this arrangement, 4 consecutive parts of the graduation 9 therefore bear no indication. Finally a graduation 10, bearing the indications of the 12 months of the year, is arranged around the center of rotation of the needle 7.

Under these conditions, the index 6, pointing to a day of the week appearing on the crown 8 and to a number corresponding to the date on the crown 9, permanently gives the date, the month being indicated by the hand 7 on the dial 10. Of course the graduations 9 and 8 make it possible to read, moreover, the correspondence between the calendar and the day of the week for each day of the current month. At the start of each month, the disc with the graduation 9 must be moved with the help of a motor so that the number 1 comes next to the index 6, so that the watch continues to give the correct date.

Finally, a crown 11, which can occupy a neutral position 11ʹ and a pulled or correction position 11ʺ, makes it possible to set the watch to the time in a conventional manner.

The electronic movement of the watch shown in Figure 1 thus includes 3 motors, an electronic circuit to activate the motors, and a battery to power the circuit.

An embodiment of this circuit is shown in Figure 2 where the battery is not shown. In this figure is a timepiece circuit 15 which supplies a time base signal S15 to a first motor 16 which, by means of a control mechanism 17, drives the hands 3, 4 and 5 displaying the time , as well as index 6.

The timepiece circuit 15 includes an oscillator 20 stabilized in frequency by a quartz resonator 21, providing a signal of 32,768 Hz for example, an ET22 gate with two inputs, one of these inputs being connected to the output of the oscillator, a frequency divider 23 whose input is connected to the output of the gate ET22, and a drive circuit 24 receiving from the frequency divider a signal of 1 Hz and supplying at its output the signal S15. The frequency divider 23 also has an output which delivers a catch-up signal S23, formed of short pulses, having a frequency of the order of 10 Hz, and a reset input R which is connected to the output of a inverter 25, the input of this inverter being connected to the second input of the gate ET22.

The first motor 16 is, for example, of the stepping type with a single direction of rotation, or unidirectional. It drives, in the control mechanism 17, a first gear train, not shown, which advances the needles already described 3, 4, 5 and 6. This gear train also actuates a daily contact X, or first contact , closing it when the watch goes from one day to the next, that is to say at midnight, to produce a daily logic signal Sx. It will be assumed that the signal Sx is at the low logic level when the contact X is open, and at the high logic level when this contact is closed. The same rule will be applied to all signals produced by contacts.

The control mechanism 17 also includes correction means, not shown, for setting the watch to the time by means of the crown 11. When this crown is placed in the correction position 11ʺ it is mechanically coupled with the hands 3 , 4, 5 and 6, allowing them to be moved to correct the time in a conventional manner.

The crown 11 also acts, whatever its angular position, on a position contact Y, or second contact, which produces a logic signal Sy which is applied to the second input of the gate ET22. This contact is closed when the crown 11 is in the neutral position 11 position, and open when the crown is in the correction position 11ʺ.

The elements which have just been described, with the exception of index 6, form a conventional analog watch whose operation is as follows. When the crown 11 is in neutral position 11ʹ, the signal Sy being at the high logic level, the gate ET22 lets pass the signal from the oscillator 20 to the frequency divider 23. The reset input R of the divider Since the frequency is at low logic level, this circuit supplies the 1 Hz signal at the input of the driving circuit 24 which, in turn, supplies the time base signal S15 to the first motor 16. This motor drives, by l 'Intermediate of the first gear train 17, the hands 3, 4, 5 of the time display and actuates, by means of the same gear train, the contact X. The daily signal Sx produced by this contact passes , at midnight, from the low logic level to the high logic level to return, a little later, to the low logic level and stay at this level until the start of the next day.

In the correction position 11ʺ of the crown 11 the signal Sy is at the low logic level, which has the effect of blocking the gate E22 and of resetting the frequency divider 23 which receives, under these conditions, no signal. It is the same for the motor 16, which remains at rest. The hands can then only be moved by the crown which, in this position, is linked to the gear train in order to allow the watch to be set precisely. Of course when the hands driven by the crown pass by midnight, the contact X is activated in the same way as when they are driven by the first motor 16.

The watch also includes a second drive circuit 26, similar to circuit 24, a second unidirectional motor 27, similar to motor 16 and connected to circuit 26, and a second gear train 28 connected to motor 27. This second train gears drives, in the opposite direction to the index 6, the disc carrying the movable graduation 9 with a pitch of 1 / 35th of a turn, that is to say by the angle corresponding to the distance separating a date next, in response to an impulse applied to the input of circuit 26. Under these conditions, for index 6 to point to 1 at the start of each month, circuit 26 must have at the end of the previous month received N correction pulses on its input.

The number N depends, of course on the month, but also, if the watch must remain in accordance with the indications of a calendar perpetual, of the year in a 4 year cycle. By designating by A the years numbered from 1 to 4 in a 4-year cycle, 1 corresponding to the leap year, and by M the months numbered from 1 to 12, 1 corresponding to January, the value of N at the end of each month is given by the following table:

This table, which contains only a leap year and the start of a normal year, shows in particular that N = 6 at the end of month 2 (February) of year 1 (leap), while N = 7 at the end of the same month in a normal year.

The N pulses are contained in a correction signal produced by a circuit essentially comprising a perpetual calendar circuit 30 and a correction circuit 40 which will now be described.

The perpetual calendar circuit 30 includes a 5-bit day counter counting by 31, referenced 31, a 4-bit month counter counting as 12, referenced 32, finally a 2-bit year counter counting by 4, referenced 33. These counters are connected in series. The counter 31 receives on its input the daily signal Sx, produced by the contact X, and provides on an output, when the watch goes from one month to the next month, a monthly signal Sm. The signal Sm is applied to the input of the counter 32 which provides, at the time of the passage of the watch from one year to the following year, an annual signal Sa which is applied to the input of the counter 33. On another output of the month and year counters, a signal representative of its content appears, referenced S32 for the counter 32 and S33 for the counter 33. The counter 32 also provides a signal Smc indicating the short months, that is to say say those with less than 31 days, and the counter 33 a Sab signal indicating the leap year in a 4-year cycle.

The calendar circuit 30 furthermore comprises a logic circuit 34 which generates from the signals Smc and Sab a signal S34 for the counter 31 in order to set its content to 1 when passing from watch from a month of less than 31 days to the following month. In this way the content of counter 31 always remains in accordance with a perpetual calendar.

The signal Sm is produced by the passage to 1 of the content of the counter 31. It will be assumed that this signal is normally at the low logic level and that it goes to the high logic level at midnight at the end of a short month, to return to the logic level low no later than the next day.

The circuit 30 will not be described in more detail because such circuits are well known. An embodiment is, for example, described with all the necessary precision in US Pat. No. 4,300,222 relating to an electronic watch provided with a perpetual analog calendar.

The correction circuit 40 finally prepares, from the signals S32 and S33, the correction signal, referenced S40, intended to control the position of the disc carrying the mobile graduation 9. This circuit includes a read-only memory 41 and a conversion circuit 42 , also known as the well known Binary Rate Multiplier (BRM).

The memory 41 receives the signals S32 and S33. The signal S32 is a multiple 4-bit logic signal which can take 12 different states, each state corresponding to one month. The signal S33 is, for its part, a 2-bit logic signal which can take 4 states, each state corresponding to a year of a 4-year cycle including a leap year.

The signals S32 and S33 define 12 × 4 = 48 addresses in the memory 41, each address being composed of the number of a month and the number of a year of the 4-year cycle. A number is assigned to each address, this number being equal to the value of N given by the table established previously as a function of months (M) and years (A).

The memory 41 also receives the monthly signal Sm to read the value of N when the calendar changes from one month to the following month. This value of N appears at the output of the memory in the form of a multiple logic signal S41 of 3 bits which can take 4 different states corresponding to the numbers 4, 5, 6 and 7.

The signal S41 is applied to the input of the circuit 42 which also receives the catch-up signal S23 of about 10 Hz, and the signal monthly Sm. This circuit delivers at its output the correction signal S40 which is normally at the low logic level, except at the beginning of each month. At this time, in response to the signal Sm, it comprises a train of N pulses, the value of N being determined by the logic state of the signal S41. These pulses are obtained from signal S23, letting 4, 5, 6 or 7 consecutive pulses of this signal pass, and they thus make it possible to move the mobile graduation 9 in its correct position for 4, 5, 6 or 7 days. less than 1 second.

The watch finally includes a third drive circuit 45, a third motor 46, connected to circuit 45, and a third gear train 47, controlled by motor 46 and moving the indicator hand for months 7 at each change of months in response to the monthly signal Sm applied to the input of circuit 45.

The watch may also advantageously include means, not shown, making it possible to select any month, past or future, and to move the graduation 9 to the position corresponding to this month in order to read the correspondence between the dates and the days, and ways to automatically return to the current month.

If the watch is initially set to the time and date, it will no longer need to be corrected, except for small variations in the time by means of the crown 11.

To simplify the calendar circuit 30, it could include only the counters 31 and 32. The calendar of the watch would then be of the semi-perpetual type.

Of course, the watch which has just been described could undergo other further modifications and come in various variants obvious to those skilled in the art, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims (5)

1. Analog electronic watch, characterized in that it comprises:
- means (3, 4, 5) for displaying time analogically;
- a fixed graduation (8) in the form of a ring bearing the indications, regularly spaced, of the days of the week of at least 5 consecutive weeks;
- a pivoting index (6), mechanically coupled to said means for displaying the time, traversing on said fixed scale, in 24 hours, the distance separating one day from the next day;
- a mobile scale (9), concentric with said fixed scale, bearing the numbers 1 to 31 to indicate the dates, these numbers being arranged in increasing numerical order so that two consecutive numbers are opposite two days following on the fixed scale;
- control means (26, 27, 28) for moving said movable scale;
- a perpetual calendar circuit (30) providing a calendar signal (S32, S33) representative of the month number and the year number in a four-year cycle; and
- a correction circuit (40) providing, in response to said calendar signal, a correction signal (S40) to said control means for moving the movable graduation by N days in order to bring the number 1 opposite the index to l 'moment of the passage of the watch from one month to the next month. 2. Watch according to claim 1, characterized in that said correction circuit comprises:
- a read only memory (41) which supplies, in response to said calendar signal, a signal (S41) representative of said number N; and
- a conversion circuit (42) which develops, from the signal supplied by the read-only memory, said correction signal. 3. Watch according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said correction signal is formed by a series of pulse trains, each pulse train appearing at the time of the passage of the watch at least one month later and comprising a number of pulses representative of the number N. 4. Watch according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that N is:
4 at the end of January, March, May, July, August, October, December
5 at the end of April, June, September, November
6 at the end of February in a leap year
7 at the end of February in a normal year. 5. Watch according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it further comprises means (7, 10, 45, 46, 47) connected to the calendar circuit to display the month analogically.

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