The current invention relates to personal adornments such as luxury watches, pendants, ear rings, or other jewelry in which at least one freestanding film is used as decorative part.
Freestanding films provide a luxurious metallic feel in hues that are difficult to otherwise achieve. Further, it is luxurious to wear a watch or other jewelry having metals that are fabricated so precisely that NASA uses them in satellites.
Freestanding films were first developed in the 1970's to act as band pass filters for extreme ultraviolet and soft x-ray wavelengths. Their function was to filter out some wavelengths of light while allowing others to pass. One of the first applications of freestanding films was for space-based astronomy; more specifically for, telescopes stationed above the Earth's atmosphere. Since that time, freestanding films have been routinely used on space missions.
A freestanding film is a metal that is fabricated so thin that it is measured in nanometers and, not supported by a continuous substrate. A typical freestanding film is about 200 times thinner than common kitchen foil. Some freestanding films are 3,000 times thinner than a piece of office paper. Known freestanding films can be made from over 70 materials, including zirconium, titanium, gold, silver, palladium, for example. However, it is conceivable that freestanding films can be made from any known material.
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The freestanding films shown in
It is an objective of the present invention to provide personal adornment where freestanding film is disposed on the adornment, or freestanding film is used to, at least partially, form the adornment.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed descriptions of the preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:
a is a top view of an exemplary freestanding film supported by a hexagonal mesh;
b is a top view of an exemplary unsupported, freestanding film;
a is a top, perspective view of a watch having freestanding film disposed on or near the face;
b is a side, cutaway view of section A-A where A-A is shown in
a is a top view of an exemplary frame having a self-supported, freestanding film;
b is a top view of an exemplary frame having a freestanding film supported by a rectangular mesh;
a is a top view of a digital watch where freestanding film is disposed on or near the face;
b is a side, perspective view of a digital watch where freestanding film is disposed on the case;
c is a side, perspective view of a digital watch where freestanding film is disposed on both the watch face and case;
The present invention is related to personal adornment where freestanding film is disposed on the adornment, or freestanding film is used to, at least partially, form the adornment. Multiple embodiments of the invention are described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
Referring
The watch (10) comprises a watch movement (14) where a vertical projection (26) connects the watch movement (14) to minute and second hands (12). The watch movement (14) is mounted in a watch case (16). The watch movement (14), for exemplary purposes, is shown in a circular configuration, and is of standard design available from a wide variety of watch manufacturers. The portion of the watch case (16) located above the surface of the watch movement (14) defines a shoulder (18). Freestanding film (20) may be disposed between the watch movement (14) and the watch hands (12), and secured onto the shoulder (18) of the watch case. It should be noted here that other methods of disposing freestanding film (20) into the watch (10) may be used.
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The freestanding film (20) disposed on the above listed luxury items may be attached by any known means used to work freestanding films. Similarly, freestanding films listed above may form, at least a portion, of any of the luxury items described, using any known metal forming means used to work freestanding films.
Although a number of luxury items are listed here, a person having ordinary skill in the art will understand that freestanding film (20) can be attached to any number of other items to make those items more luxurious.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/719,598, filed on 29 Oct. 2012, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/705,726, filed on 26 Sep. 2012. The current application incorporates herein, by reference, in its entirety both U.S. Provisional Patent Applications Nos. 61/719,598 and 61/705,726.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61719598 | Oct 2012 | US | |
61705726 | Sep 2012 | US |