The present invention concerns a bracelet fastening or attaching device or connecting element for watches and jewels.
An important element of a watch's exterior is the bracelet allowing it to be fastened to the wrist.
The evolution of customs and fashions has created new needs, notably as regards the changing of the bracelet to adapt it to circumstances, clothing or current fashion.
Quality watches often use conventional bracelet fastening means, i.e. attachments or horns with a place for the bracelet's extremity. This bracelet can be of leather, metal or any other existing material suited for this use. In order to ensure that the bracelet is reliably fastened on the watch, it is necessary to make them integral along three axes, defined in space as described hereafter (
On most bracelet fastening systems, a cylindrical lug is used, of which at least one of the two pivots is mobile. This lug is integral with the bracelet's strand through a traversing opening made through the latter. The pivots are lodged in opposite borings provided to this effect in the horns of the watch. In this manner, the bracelet is integral with the watch, through the lug, on the longitudinal axis and on the vertical axis. The locking on the transverse axis is ensured in both directions by the attaching device of the watch since the distance in-between the horns is practically equal to the width of the bracelet's strand. Ordinarily, the inner sides of the horns, in which the borings are made to receive the lug's pivots, are parallel to one another, and generally parallel to the longitudinal axis 1 of the watch.
Changing the bracelet can thus be effected neither instantly nor easily by the watch's wearer. The latter must thus request the assistance of the vendor who uses suitable tools.
The present invention aims to provide a bracelet attaching device answering the new needs, as described here above, namely to allow the user to change the bracelet easily, without tools and reliably.
Many patents are known that have in common proposals for solving the same problem: how to change a watch bracelet oneself rapidly and without tool, yet ensuring the reliability of the clasp.
Patent EP0461069 proposes a rotating bezel provided with two protuberances which, in normal position, overlap over two other complementary protuberances that are part of the watch's middle and containing each a lodging for receiving the two strands of the bracelet provided with their respective lug. The inconvenience of this system is that it limits the possibilities of creating new shapes for the watch cases or for the jewel, because it compulsorily comprises a rotating bezel provided with protuberances.
Patent CH216721 uses the same principle of a rotating bezel overlapping over, and locking, the bracelet's fastening area. It allows also supple bracelets, e.g. of leather, to be fastened by means of a rigid attaching element that comes to rest in the lodging, integral with the middle, and covered by the protuberance of the rotating bezel when it is locked. This solution has the same disadvantages as the preceding one.
Patent FR709518 is a proposal similar to the preceding one, with an embodiment that is a formed case, i.e. not circular. The inconvenience of this invention, dating back to 1931, is that it no longer corresponds to the technical criteria of watches as they are designed nowadays.
The aim of the invention is achieved when the inner sides of the horns of the watch or of the jewel are at least partly not parallel. In a preferred embodiment, they present, as seen from above, a necking, for example in the shape of a T-groove, as shown in the embodiment illustrated in
This opening, made in the watch or in the jewel, can traverse the width of the middle through and through. It can also be made only to a certain depth, either from above or from below the middle.
Since the bracelet's strand has a shape similar to that of the aforementioned opening, it becomes integral with the watch or with the jewel, along the longitudinal axis through the opening's necking, and along the transverse axis through the two horns of the base element, for example of the middle in the case of a watch.
As the bracelet's strand does not comprise lugs, its locking on the vertical axis is ensured by a tongue, visible in
The system of horns is a common attachment of the watch. The present invention can also be adapted to other attaching systems, for example to a central attachment.
Thanks to this new design, the bracelet is integral with the watch or the jewel on its three axes. The fastening is thus ensured and reliable.
The embodiments of the invention, chosen as non-limiting examples, are now described with the aid of the following drawings in which:
In the embodiment illustrated in the FIGS. 1 to 10, the horns 1 form a necking 2 on their entire height. The necking 2 is thus visible from the upper side and from the lower side of the watch when the bracelet is fastened to the case.
Other shapes are possible for the horns 1 within the framework of the invention. In a variant embodiment, the upper parts of the horns 1 have parallel inner sides and participate to the aesthetic aspect of the watch when a bracelet is fastened to the case, whilst the lower parts of their inner sides form a necking, for example as illustrated in the figures, in a dovetail shape, or in any other shape, and are preferably at least partly covered by the bracelet when the latter is fastened to the watch case.
According to still another embodiment, the upper parts of the horns form a necking close to the end of the horns whilst the inner sides of their lower part are parallel to the longitudinal axis. The necking is then for example visible from the upper side of the watch when the bracelet is fastened to the case and thus possibly contributes to the aesthetic aspect of the watch.
In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, both pairs of horns 1 and both tongues 6 are identical to each other. It is however possible, within the framework of the invention, to conceive a watch case or a jewel having two pairs of horns of different shapes. This further brings the advantage that both bracelet strands have differently shaped extremities, thus preventing them from being fastened to the wrong place.
The spacing delimited by two horns 1 of a same pair defines a lodging for the extremity of a bracelet strand 3. Preferably, the width of the strand's extremity is approximately equal to the distance between the inner sides of the horns 1, such that, when placed in its lodging, the strand 3 is held in both directions along a first axis, for example along the transverse axis A-C. According to the invention, the horns 1 of a same pair further form a necking on at least part of the horns' height, preferably close to the extremity of the horns 1. The strand's extremity is preferably rigid and formed to comply with this necking, such that the strand is held along a second axis, for example along the longitudinal axis A-C, when it is correctly placed in the lodging. In the illustrated example, the necking is in the shape of a rectangle. Other forms are however possible within the framework of the invention. The parts of the horns protruding within the lodging for holding the bracelet's strand in one or preferably both directions along the second axis can for example have circular, triangular or any other shapes.
When the bracelet fastening device of the invention is in locked position and a strand 3 is correctly placed in its lodging, the corresponding tongue 6 holds the strand in both directions along a third axis, for example along the vertical axis, through insertion in a corresponding recess 12 in the preferably rigid strand's extremity (
In the illustrated example, the tongues 6 are united with the rotating ring 5 placed between the middle 9 and the back cover 8. According to a variant embodiment, the tongues 6 are united with another rotating element located for example over and/or inside the middle 9, for example a rotating bezel, a rotating lever, etc. The rotating element can then be accessed and actuated for example from the upper side and/or from a lateral side of the watch case. Preferably, both tongues are united with the same rotating element. It is however possible, within the framework of the invention, to unite each tongue 6 with a different rotating element, such that each strand can for example be locked or unlocked independently.
If a metallic bracelet is used, the first link has the shape and the elements allowing it to be set in the space in-between the horns of the watch case and to be fastened there according to the same principles of those described here above.
The invention is not limited to the use of bracelet strands with inserts or of metallic bracelets, nor to the attaching system described here above. It is enough for the part of the strands placed in the attachment of the middle 9, or of another base element, to be sufficiently rigid to be held by the attachment's necking, despite a traction being exerted on the strands.
The invention is described above in its application to a watch, in particular to a wrist watch, wherein the horns are preferably united with the watch case's middle. The bracelet fastening device of the invention can however also be applied to a jewel, whereas the horns are then united with a base element of a part of the jewel whilst the tongue or tongues are united with a rotating element which is attached to the base element and can slide relative to it.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2004CH-01845 | Nov 2004 | CH | national |
This application claims priority from Swiss patent application CH01845/04 filed on Nov. 9, 2004 and from U.S. patent application US11/032927 filed on Jan. 11, 2005, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.