This application claims priority to European Patent Application No. 21206404.2 filed Nov. 4, 2021, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a device for fastening wristlet strands on a watch case allowing to mount and dismount said wristlet strands on the case without tools.
The document U.S. Pat. No. 2,850,783 describes a watch wristlet comprising extensible metal strands which are each provided, at one of their ends, with a system comprising a housing extending transversely to the longitudinal direction of the wristlet strand and provided with a transverse opening. The housing is intended to receive a wristlet fastening strip extending between the inner faces of the horns of a watch case. The housing is equipped with a flap that can be moved between a locked position wherein it closes the transverse opening of the housing and thus ensures that the strip is held in the housing and thereby even fastens the wristlet strand to the case and an unlocked position wherein the flap is disengaged from the transverse opening and which allows the wearer of the watch to release the strip from the housing and thus separate the wristlet strand from the case. The flap is locked using tabs bent at 90° which are integral with the shutter and which ensure locking by friction on a rigid edge of the housing. The friction forces involved are relatively low given their small width and the small thickness of the edge against which they bear. Furthermore, after a few locking-unlocking cycles, these tabs are likely to deform plastically and therefore no longer ensure reliable notching or even in the worst case are likely to break and possibly lead to a fall or a loss of the watch. It will also be noted that this system includes three folded sheet metal portions which are quite complex, which makes the system difficult and expensive to produce.
The main purpose of the present invention is to provide a device for fastening wristlet strands to a watch case allowing to assemble and disassemble said wristlet strands on the case without tools.
The present invention also aims at providing a wristwatch wherein the wristlet strands are provided with a device allowing the manual locking and unlocking of the connection between the strips of the watch case and the wristlet strands of the watch, said system being simple and easy to produce, while guaranteeing secure locking.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an insert that can be integrated into a wristlet strand, said insert allowing the wristlet strand to be assembled and disassembled from a strip of a watch case without tools.
This purpose is achieved by an insert, a wristlet strand and a watch according to the appended claims.
The invention relates to an insert for a strand of a watch wristlet, allowing to manually lock and unlock the connection between the strand and a strip of a watch case, said insert comprises a body made of rigid material and a latch, the body made of rigid material comprising a parallelepiped portion extended by a hook-shaped portion terminating in an edge, said hook-shaped portion forming a housing for the strip, the housing comprising a transverse opening, the parallelepiped portion being configured to be secured to one end of the strand, the latch being housed in a cavity of the body and hinged to the body to cause it to pivot around a hinge axis parallel to the housing, said latch comprising a closing wall capable of closing said housing. According to the invention, the latch comprises locking means formed by a pin integral with the latch cooperating with a hole in the body as well as first return means arranged to constrain the pin in the hole in a locking position, and wherein the latch has a length less than the length of the cavity so that when the latch is pushed manually in the direction of the hinge axis so as to release the pin in an unlocked position wherein the latch is free to pivot around its hinge axis and allows to clear the transverse opening of the housing.
In accordance with other advantageous variants of the invention:
The invention also relates to a watch wristlet strand and a watch including a wristlet provided with an insert in accordance with the invention.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will appear in the following description of preferred embodiments, presented by way of non-limiting example with reference to the appended drawings.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will appear more clearly upon reading the detailed description of a preferred embodiment which follows, made with reference to the appended drawings given by way of non-limiting examples and wherein:
The insert shown in
The rigid material body 2 is preferably a uniform part formed from a single material. The body 2 can be made of a metal material or an alloy, a composite material, a ceramic material or else a plastic material.
The parallelepiped portion 3 comprises shoulders 6 which allow to provide good hold or a good grip of the insert 1 to the wristlet strand which is generally over-moulded or glued. For example, the insert can be over-moulded with a synthetic material from which the wristlet strand is formed. Alternatively, the insert can be inserted and glued between two layers of a material from which the strand is formed.
The insert 1 illustrated in
As illustrated in
The latch 12 is a part made, preferably, of metal, for example steel, aluminium, gold, or other metal material. It is pivotally mounted about an axis 8 parallel to the housing 5 and which is inserted or driven into the holes 33, 34 of the side walls of the cavity 30. The latch 12 has a length slightly less than that of the cavity 30 so as to be able to move it in translation within the cavity 30.
The latch 12 comprises a rear portion 13 pierced with a longitudinal hole 14 to receive the axis 8 and whose length is less than the space between the side walls 31, 32. The rear portion 13 of the latch also has a housing 130 for receiving return means such as a compression spring 10 cooperating with one of the side walls 31 of the cavity 30. The housing 130 is coaxial with the longitudinal hole 14 and has a diameter greater than the diameter of the hole 14 so that the spring 10 remains constrained between the wall 31 and the bottom of the housing 130. As illustrated in
The latch 12 further comprises a closing wall 16 having a flat face extending along the longitudinal direction of the housing 5 and resting against the rim 5a of the housing, so as to produce a closed housing of section substantially circular when the latch 12 is in the closed position. The latch 12 also comprises locking means and return means arranged to hold the latch in the closed or open position. In the example illustrated, the locking means are formed by a pin 11 integral with the latch 12 and cooperating with an orifice 37 formed in one of the side walls 32 of the space 30. The return means are in the form a torsion spring 9 disposed on the axis 8, the rear portion 13 of the latch 12 having a machining revealing the axis and being arranged to receive the spring 9. As can be seen in
Advantageously, the latch 12 has at the wall opposite the locking means 11, a portion with a reduced thickness so as to form a rim 19 resting on the side wall 31 opposite the side wall 32 cooperating with the locking means 11 and which has for this purpose a lower height so that the rim 19 can rest thereon.
The side wall 31 also has a portion with a slope 35 so that the latch 12 can pivot around its axis 8 without being blocked by the body 2 when it is unlocked. This slope 35 also allows to act as a stop by defining and limiting the angular stroke of the latch 12 relative to the body 2 of the insert 1.
The side wall 32 in turn has a cutout 36 with a slope to guide the locking means 11 to the hole 37 when the latch moves from the unlocked position to the locked position. Thus, when the wearer presses the latch 12 towards the bottom of the cavity 30, the pin 11 contacts the slope and causes a translation of the latch 12 in the direction of the axis 8 and implicitly a compression of the spring 8 until the pin 11 is inserted into the hole 37. Once the pin 11 is housed in the hole 37, the latch returns to its rest position in the cavity 30 under the action of the spring 8.
The latch 12 also acts as a handling element and has on its upper face, that is to say the face visible to the wearer when the latch is in the closed position, shallow machining or textures in negative or positive relief to facilitate the handling of the latch 12.
In the closed or locked position (
To switch the latch 12 to its open or unlocked position (
To open the tab, the user will push the tab 16 backwards until the edge 17 is disengaged from the notch 22, and then switch the latch 12 towards its open position. As shown in section in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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21206404.2 | Nov 2021 | WO | international |