Patent Grant
10437198
This application claims priority of European patent application No. EP15196611.6 filed Nov. 26, 2015, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The invention concerns a timepiece calendar system, in particular an annual or perpetual timepiece calendar system. It also concerns a timepiece movement including such a system. It further concerns a timepiece, notably a wristwatch, including such a system or such a movement. It finally concerns a method of operating such a timepiece calendar system, such a movement or such a timepiece.
There is known from the patent application EP0987609 an annual calendar mechanism including two kinematic systems for driving the date disk. A first calendar drive mobile enables a first jump of the date disk every day. A second calendar drive mobile, called the correction mobile, enables an additional jump of the date disk at the end of a month comprising thirty days. The latter disk is pivoted on a lever the angular position of which is controlled by a month cam and return spring. A construction of this kind requires a large number of components, notably springs and levers, and consumes a great deal of energy. Moreover, because of the sequencing of the operation of such a mechanism, it is very difficult to achieve a good quality of the instantaneous date jump of the calendar at the end of a short month.
There is known from the patent application EP1335253 an annual calendar mechanism employing a lever for driving the date disk which, at the end of each month comprising thirty days, operates in conjunction with a conventional calendar drive mobile. A roller mounted on the drive lever is adapted to cooperate at all times with a cam at the outside periphery of the date disk.
Throughout the month, the lever accumulates the energy necessary for an additional date jump by arming a spring via a profile of the cam. The profile terminates in a steep slope so that the lever and its roller can advance the date disk by an additional step because of the effect of the force produced by the spring. Here the spring is sized so that it can overcome the torque retaining the date disk that is provided by a conventional indexing jumper, which is less than the optimum in terms of energy consumption. Moreover, because of the effect of the spring, the roller of the lever bears against the date disk at all times, and so an ancillary device for adjusting the force of the spring is recommended to enable easy adjustment of the calendar.
There is known from the application CH706799 an annual calendar mechanism including a drive lever that has the particular feature of acting on the date disk in a localized manner. At the end of each month, the number of jumps of the date disk is a function of the angular travel that the lever is liable to effect. To this end, the lever is controlled both by a calendar cam that is adapted to store the energy required for driving the date disk and by an annual cam adapted to define the amplitude of the angular travel of the lever. The spring for actuating the drive lever is sized so that it can overcome the torque retaining the date disk over two angular steps of the date disk, which is not favorable in terms of energy. Moreover, a disengagement mechanism between the date disk and the lever driving the date disk is required to enable adjustment of the calendar when the lever is interacting with the toothset of the date disk.
There is known from the application EP1962152 a device to assist retaining a date disk in position. The latter application discloses a locking member which, when not driving the date disk, acts on a date disk indexing jumper so as to prevent all risk of a double date jump.
There is finally known from the application EP2180383 a device to assist retaining a date disk in position. The latter application discloses a member for locking an indexing jumper of a date disk that can be actuated by an ancillary correction mechanism to minimize the resisting torque when adjusting the date.
Thus the known prior art annual calendars are traditionally equipped with one or two calendar drive mobiles that are adapted to cooperate with a month auxiliary wheel or cam. This element controls the double date jump mechanism at the end of each short month, possibly by way of additional levers and springs. A construction of this kind can induce a particularly delicate sequence of operations. The double date jump at the end of months comprising thirty days may be problematic because of the sequencing of the operation of two distinct kinematic systems driving the date disk and also because of the additional energy that such a jumper requires.
The object of the invention is to provide a timepiece calendar system making it possible to eliminate the disadvantages referred to above and to improve the known prior art timepiece calendar systems. In particular, the invention notably proposes a reliable annual timepiece calendar system the energy consumption of which is minimized.
A timepiece calendar system according to the invention is defined as follows:
Various embodiments of the system are defined as follows:
A movement according to the invention is defined as follows:
A timepiece according to the invention is defined as follows:
An operating method according to the invention is defined as follows:
An embodiment of the method is defined as follows:
One embodiment of a timepiece 120 according to the invention is described hereinafter with reference to
The embodiment of the movement 110 represented in
The embodiment of the timepiece calendar system 100 represented in
The date indication mobile is for example a date indication disk or a date disk.
The indexing of the date mobile 1 by one or the other of the first and second indexing devices is preferably mutually exclusive. In other words, the date mobile 1 is indexed by one or the other of the first and second indexing devices depending on the status of the element for activating and deactivating at least one of the first and second indexing devices. To this end, the activation and deactivation element may be an element for mutually exclusive activation and deactivation of the first and second indexing devices. Thus, the timepiece calendar system includes means for deactivating one indexing device when the other indexing device is activated. The means for deactivating one indexing device may be a pin or a stud or any kind of banking.
The calendar is therefore adapted to recognize months comprising thirty days or months comprising fewer than thirty days and months comprising thirty-one days in order to produce an annual or perpetual calendar.
The calendar system 100 is therefore distinguished by the use of a date display disk 1 that can be positioned angularly or indexed either by the first indexing device 3 or by the second indexing device 4 of the date display disk, as represented in particular in
The first indexing device advantageously includes a jumper 3, in particular a jumper head 3a and a return spring 30. The jumper 3, notably the head 3a of the jumper 3, is adapted to cooperate, notably to cooperate through contact, with a first toothset 1a of the date disk because of the effect of the return spring 30.
The second indexing device advantageously includes a lever 4 having a head 4a, notably a first roller 4a, and a return spring 40. The lever 4, notably the head 4a, may be adapted to cooperate, notably to cooperate through contact, with a second toothset 1b of the date disk. The second toothset 1b has a cam surface 10b* enabling the second indexing device, notably by way of the roller 4a, to drive the date disk over two steps of the date disk.
The disk 1 therefore has two separate toothsets 1a, 1b. The first toothset 1a comprises 31 teeth 10a. The teeth 10a are adapted to cooperate, notably to cooperate through mutual interference, on the one hand with an element 2 for driving the date disk and on the other hand with the jumper 3. The second toothset 1b includes at least one tooth, notably three teeth 10b, which for their part are specifically adapted to cooperate with the lever 4. The first indexing device, notably the jumper 3, and the second indexing device, notably the lever 4, are for example mobile in rotation, notably mobile in rotation about the same pivot axis P. The lever 4 is advantageously able to control the jumper 3 so as to inhibit its action on encountering the toothset 1a via means 3b, 3c, 4b, 40 described in more detail hereinafter with reference to
In conventional or default operation of the calendar system, the angular position of the date display disk 1 is defined by the head or the beak 3a of the jumper 3, which is conformed to cooperate with two consecutive teeth 10a. To this end, the spring 30 of the jumper 3 takes the form of a spring arm 30 that is adapted to be armed by a pin G fastened to the frame of the movement so as to generate a resistive torque M about the axis P and therefore to enable the placing of the beak 3a against the teeth 10a when the disk 1 is not loaded by the drive element, as represented in
The drive element 2 may have an entirely conventional structure, as represented in
Throughout the day, the wheel 5 drives the cam 7 and accumulates the energy necessary for the finger 2a to jump instantaneously by arming the spring 9 via the profile of the cam 7 and the lever 8. Just before the date changes, the roller 8a reaches the summit of the profile of the cam 7. The change of date is effective in a fraction of a second when the spring 9 outputs the accumulated energy to communicate a sudden movement in rotation to the cam 7 and to the finger 2a via the lever 8 and its roller 8a. The finger 2a then overcomes the retaining torque M over at least one angular half-step of the disk 1 until the top 10a of the tooth has been passed at least by the beak 3a, as represented in
The lever 4 has no effect on the jumper 3 in conventional operation of the calendar mechanism, in particular at the end of a month comprising 31 days. Accordingly, the first indexing device is activated and the second indexing device is deactivated.
The spring 40, in the form of the spring arm 40, is prestressed by a pin 3c of the jumper 3, in particular the spacer 3c of the beak 3a, so as to generate a resistive torque M′ about the axis P and therefore to enable unambiguous positioning of the lever 4 against a banking B that is fastened to the frame of the movement, as represented in
In this configuration, the roller 4a, being disposed at a first end of the lever 4, is out of reach of the toothset 1b, as represented in
The activation and deactivation element preferably includes a first device 70, 3b, 4b for deactivating the first indexing device and a second device 40, 70 for activating the second indexing device. The first deactivating device 70, 3b, 4b is such that the first indexing device is deactivated and the second deactivation device 40, 70 is such that the second indexing device is activated when the date disk is driven to change from a short month to the next month.
The first deactivation device 70, 3b, 4b is preferably arranged such that the first indexing device is deactivated and the second activation device 70 is preferably arranged such that the second indexing device is activated during one day, or even two days, or even three days, preceding a change from a short month to the next month.
In addition to this or instead of this, the first deactivation device 70, 3b, 4b is arranged such that by default the first indexing device is activated and the second activation device 40, 70 is arranged such that the second indexing device is deactivated during the various months, notably during the days preceding a change from a long month to the next month with the exception of the days preceding a change from a short month to the next month.
The first device 70, 3b, 4b for deactivating the first indexing device may include a control cam 70. The first device 70, 3b, 4b for deactivating the first indexing device may include a first banking 3b on the first indexing device cooperating with a second banking 4b on the second indexing device so as to move the first indexing device away from its position cooperating with the date disk and so as to submit the second indexing device to the torque of the first return spring 30 of the first indexing device when the second indexing device is cooperating with the date disk.
By default the first indexing device is activated by the effect of the first spring 30. From then on, the first device for deactivating the first indexing device makes it possible to inhibit the cooperation of the jumper 3 and the date disk 1 because of the effect of the first spring 30.
The second device 40, 70 for activating the second indexing device may include a control cam 70. The second indexing device may be adapted to cooperate with the cam 70, notably via a second roller 4c on the lever 4. The second device for activating the second indexing device therefore makes it possible to constrain the second spring 40 so that the roller 4a is able to cooperate with the toothset 1b.
From then on, at the end of a month comprising 30 days, in particular on the change from the twenty-eighth day to the twenty-ninth day, the roller 4a on the lever 4 is positioned so that it can be actuated by a first tooth 10b of the toothset 1b. To this end, the lever 4 can be positioned by the annual cam 70 that is kinematically coupled to the date disk 1, for example via wheels 1c, 60, 70c as explained hereinafter with reference to
A date jump at the end of a short month or a month comprising thirty days, for example at the end of the month of April, is described hereinafter.
As represented in
The toothset 1b is such that, because of the lever 4, as the date changes from the twenty-eighth to the thirtieth the spring arm 30 accumulates the energy necessary to enable an additional jump of the disk 1 at the end of a short month. To be more specific, the toothset 1b is adapted to make possible complementary arming of the spring arm 30 at the same time as inhibiting the action of the beak 3a against the toothset 1a. The toothset 1b is preferably conformed so that the combination of the jumper 3 and the lever 4 generates a resisting torque about the axis P at least equal to M and thus to make possible adequate retention of the angular position of the date disk 1 when the latter is not loaded by the drive finger 2a. The energy required by the energy accumulator 8, 8a, 9 to enable a date jump when the toothset 1b is indexed by the roller 4a is advantageously not greater than that required to enable a date jump when the toothset 1a is indexed by the beak 3a. To this end, the geometry of the components, notably that of the toothset 1b, and the choice of materials are optimized to reduce losses caused by friction. For example, the roller 4a may take the form of a jewel 4a pivottably mounted at the end of the lever 4.
When the date changes from 30 April to 1 May, as represented in
In this embodiment, the toothset 1b is able to act on the lever 4 as soon as the change from the twenty-eighth day to the twenty-ninth day occurs. In other words, the energy necessary for the additional date jump is accumulated over three jumps of the date disk. To this end, note that the radius R1 of the circle centered on the rotation axis of the disk 1 and passing through the gap between the bottoms of the first two successive teeth 10 is greater than the radius R2 of the circle centered on the rotation axis of the disk 1 and passing through the gap between the bottoms of the last two successive teeth 10, as represented in
Accordingly, the first indexing device 3 is such that the date disk is moved by one step on each action of the drive element and the second indexing device 4 is such that the date disk is moved by two steps on each action of the drive element occurring at the end of the thirtieth day of a short month or a month comprising thirty days.
One mode of execution of a method according to the invention is described hereinafter. The method governs the operation of a calendar system as described above, for example, and therefore comprising:
The method may equally govern the operation of a movement or a timepiece.
The method includes deactivating the first indexing device and activating the second indexing device for changes from the dates of a short month to the next month.
Accordingly, the first and second indexing devices are selectively activated on changes from a month end to the next month. These activations are preferably mutually exclusive, i.e. when one of the indexing devices is activated the other one is not. Accordingly, the date disk 1 is indexed by one or the other of the first and second indexing devices depending on the status of the element for activating and deactivating at least one of the first and second indexing devices.
The first indexing device is preferably activated by default, notably during and at the end of long months. On the other hand, the second indexing device is activated only at the end of short months, i.e. during the last day or the last few days preceding the end of a short month, notably the last two days or the last three days. In particular, the second indexing device is preferably activated on the last day or days of the months of February, April, June, September and November.
It must of course be understood that an indexing device is activated even during a transient phase of changing date once the indexing device is actually indexing the date disk in position at a first date on a first day and the indexing device is actually indexing in position the date disk at a second date on a second day, the second day coming just after the first day.
The calendar system described above has the major advantage of proposing a lever 4 that is adapted to make it possible to inhibit the jumper 3. There is therefore no resistive torque generated by the jumper 3 to be overcome at the moment of the additional date jump. Moreover, studies carried out by the applicant have shown that the energy required by the energy accumulator 8, 8a, 9 to enable a date jump when the toothset 1b is indexed by the roller 4a is not greater than that required to enable a date jump when the toothset 1a is indexed by the beak 3a. Accordingly, the annual calendar system described above has the same energy consumption as a simple calendar system.
In the embodiment of the system described above, the drive element 2 is of the instantaneous jump type. Alternatively, it could take the form of a semi-instantaneous jump or even drag type drive element. The energy accumulator 8, 8a, 9 could take the form of a spring adapted directly to actuate a drive finger against a tooth 10a.
In the embodiment of the system described above the disk 1 has interior toothsets 1a, 1b. Alternatively, the toothsets 1a and 1b may be exterior toothsets. In this alternative construction, the disk 1 may for example take the form of a wheel on which a pointer to display the date indication is mounted. Alternatively, the disk 1 may be adapted to actuate a mechanism for displaying a “large date”.
In the embodiment of the system described above, the lever 4 is directly actuated by a cam 70. Of course, the lever 4 could be driven via an additional drive lever. The cam 70 may be adapted to display the month indication and possibly to constitute a month display member. In this embodiment, the cam 70 is actuated by the date disk 1 during the month. Of course, the cam 70 could be actuated on changing from the thirty-first to the first of the next month. To this end, the lever 4 or where applicable the drive lever could be actuated by an ancillary driver device. Alternatively, the month could be displayed by a device such as that disclosed by the patent applications EP2428856 and EP2624075 via a month display disk kinematically coupled to a date display disk, for example.
The embodiment of the calendar system described above thus uses a calendar drive lever which at the end of each month comprising thirty days operates in conjunction with a conventional calendar drive element of the instantaneous jump type. The lever of this embodiment differs in that it is also adapted to enable angular indexing of the date disk. A construction of this kind makes it possible to employ a totally instantaneous annual calendar device, the energy consumption of which is minimized. A perpetual calendar could equally be produced on the basis of a construction of this kind, for example via an additional drive element of the date disk.
In the embodiment described above, the drive lever of the date disk has the particular feature of acting on the date disk in a localized manner. In some configurations of the calendar system, it is also adapted to index the angular position of the date disk and therefore to take over from the conventional date jumper. The torque required to move the date disk by an additional step is preferably produced by the jumper for indexing the date disk. The torque to enable the movement of the drive lever is therefore not added to the torque necessary for indexing the date disk.
Moreover, the calendar drive element may be a similar size to a calendar drive element of a simple calendar, which is adapted to enable the date disk to jump over one and only one angular step. A construction of this kind is therefore particularly favorable in terms of energy and development.
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| European Search Report and Written Opinion dated May 11, 2016 issued in corresponding application No. EP15196611; w/ English partial translation and partial machine translation (12 pages). |
| European Search Report and Written Opinion dated May 24, 2016 issued in application No. EP15196614 corresponding to co-pending U.S. Appl. No. 15/360,855; w/ English partial translation and partial machine translation (12 pages) (EP0987609 and EP1666991 cited in the ESR and Specification, and EP2428856 and CH681673 cited in the Specification of the co-pending application are not listed in this IDS form since they are already listed in an IDS form filed concurrently). |
| Office Action dated Dec. 29, 2017 in co-pending U.S. Appl. No. 15/360,860; with PTO892; without returned SB08 (10 pages) (Reference H, U.S. Pat. No. 2,764,828 is not listed in this IDS since it was already listed in the IDS filed Nov. 20, 2017). |
| Office Action dated Nov. 17, 2017 in co-pending U.S. Appl. No. 15/360,855; with PTO892; without returned SB08 (14 pages). |
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| Corrected Notice of Allowability dated Aug. 8, 2018 in co-pending U.S. Appl. No. 15/360,860; without returned SB08 (4 pages). |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20170153604 A1 | Jun 2017 | US |
