Patent Application
20090257323
This invention relates generally to watches, and in more particular applications to rotating and/or reversible watches.
Wrist watches are known and used by individuals for indicating time, including hours, minutes, seconds and the date. Additionally, it is often desired to indicate times in a variety of locations for business and personal reasons. For example, when working with a client located far away, it is often desired to know the local time at the client for conference calls and meetings. Additionally, when a person travels frequently, it may be desired to have the times indicated for the various time zones without having to constantly change the indicated time.
In this manner, it is known to include a watch face that can quickly adjust between different time zones. Often, these times zones are indicated on the same dial and the user simply toggles through various time zones, such as with a digital watch.
Rotatable wrist watches are also known whereby the wearer can change the look of the watch by pivoting and/or rotating the face of the watch. In this manner, the wrist watch can have two different styles or designs of faces. For example, the wrist watch can have a casual watch face and a dressy watch face. However, these watches often include complex pivot and rotation mechanisms requiring the removal and/or partial disassembly of some portion of the watch. Alternatively, the watch requires the watch face to pivot out before it can be rotated to expose the second face. These watches have extra parts and/or complex mechanisms that can be misplaced and broken easily.
In one form, a rotatable wrist watch is provided. The rotatable wrist watch includes a watch case, a dial, a crown, an outer periphery, a wrist strap and a spindle. The watch case has an exterior and an interior. The exterior includes two opposing faces and a side portion. A dial is located on each opposing face with a plurality of dials located on at least one of the opposing faces. Each dial indicates a time. A crown is provided for each dial. Each crown is located on the side portion and is movable to adjust the time indicated by the respective dial. The outer periphery is located a distance from and circumscribing the watch case. The wrist strap is coupled to the outer periphery. The spindle extends between the watch case and the outer periphery and is configured to permit the watch case to pivot about an axis between a first position where one of the watch faces is visible and a second position where the other watch face is visible.
According to one form, a rotatable wrist watch is provided. The rotatable wrist watch includes a watch case, a dial, a crown, an outer periphery, a wrist strap, a spindle, a protrusion, a groove and a recess. The watch case has an exterior and an interior. The exterior includes two opposing faces and a side portion. A dial is located on each opposing face. Each dial indicates a time. A crown is provided for each dial. Each crown is located on the side portion and is movable to adjust the time indicated by the respective dial. The outer periphery is located a distance from and circumscribing the watch case. The wrist strap is coupled to the outer periphery. The spindle extends between the watch case and the outer periphery and is configured to permit the watch case to pivot about an axis between a first position where one of the watch faces is visible and a second position where the other watch face is visible. The protrusion extends from one of the outer periphery and the side of the watch case. The groove and the recess are located on the other of the outer periphery and the side of the watch case. The groove and recess cooperate to guide the protrusion along the groove towards the recess to releasably retain the watch case relative to the outer periphery.
In one form, a rotatable wrist watch is provided. The rotatable wrist watch includes a watch case, a dial, a crown, an outer periphery, a wrist strap and a spindle. The watch case has an exterior and an interior. The exterior includes two opposing faces and a side portion. A dial is located on each opposing face. Each dial indicates a time. The outer periphery is located a distance from and circumscribing the watch case. The wrist strap is coupled to the outer periphery. The spindle extends between the watch case and the outer periphery and is configured to permit the watch case to pivot about an axis between a first position where one of the watch faces is visible and a second position where the other watch face is visible.
In accordance with one form, the watch case pivots without moving the watch case from the outer periphery.
In one form, the outer periphery is a rigid and integral component.
According to one form, the watch case pivots about a 12-6 axis.
In accordance with one form, one face includes two dials, each dial configured to indicate a different time zone and wherein the other face include two additional dials, one of the two additional dials indicating hours and the other of the two additional dials indicating minutes.
In one form, the rotatable wrist watch further includes four separate crystals on the exterior of the watch with one crystal adjacent each dial.
According to one form, the rotatable wrist watch further includes four separate movements to permit each dial to indicate time.
In one form, the rotatable wrist watch further includes a mechanical movement to keep time.
In accordance with one form, the rotatable wrist watch further includes a quartz movement to keep time.
According to one form, when the dial of a respective face is visible by a user, the crown for the respective dial is also visible.
Other forms are also contemplated as understood by those skilled in the art.
For the purpose of facilitating an understanding of the subject matter sought to be protected, there are illustrated in the accompanying drawings embodiments thereof, from an inspection of which, when considered in connection with the following description, the subject matter sought to be protected, its constructions and operation, and many of its advantages should be readily understood and appreciated.
One form of a rotatable wrist watch 20 is illustrated in
Generally, the watch 20 is defined by a watch case 28 having an interior 30, an exterior 32 and a side portion 34. Each of the faces 22,24 are located on the exterior 32 and/or extend to be at least partially viewable on the exterior 32. The watch 20 further includes an outer periphery 36 located outwardly from the watch case 28. One or more pivots, such as spindles 37 extend between the outer periphery 36 and the watch case 28 to permit the watch case 28 to rotate relative to the outer periphery 36. The watch 20 may also include one or more protrusions 38 which cooperate with one or more grooves 40 and/or recesses 42 to releasably retain the watch case 28 in a desired orientation. The components and operation of the watch 20 will be described in more detail below.
The watch case 28 can be formed in a variety of manners to include a variety of components. For example, in one form, the watch case 28 is generally composed of two main portions 44,46 that can be affixed to one another. Specifically, internal components of the watch 20 have to be inserted into the watch case 28. The interior 30 can be sized and shaped to accommodate a variety of internal components, as will be discussed in more detail infra. In this manner, the two main portions 44,46 can be separated and the internal components inserted. The two main portions 44,46 can be affixed to one another in any conventional manner understood by those skilled in the art. For example, the two main portions 44,46 can be affixed using screws 48. In one form, referring to
Similarly, it should be understood that the watch case 28 can be composed of more than two portions. For example, the watch case 28 can be composed of three portions. Moreover, the portions can be any size, shape or proportion of the overall watch case 28. In one form, the watch case 28 is circular and the portions 44,46 are approximately half of the overall watch case 28. Furthermore, the watch case 28 may include additional structure understood by those skilled in the art. For example, the watch case 28 includes one or more gaskets 50, such as seen in
The exterior 32 may include various structures to aid in the rotation of the watch case 28. Referring to
The outer periphery 36 may be formed in a variety of manners and similarly include a variety of structures to aid in the rotation and retention of the watch case 28 relative to the outer periphery 36. In one form, the outer periphery 36 is a single, rigid, integral structure. In this manner, the spindle 37 can be inserted through an opening (not shown) in the outer periphery. In another form, as illustrated in
The outer periphery 36 may also include the protrusions 38 located along an inside surface 64 of the outer periphery 36. The protrusions 38 can be located to correspond with the location of the grooves 40 and recesses 42. The protrusions 38 can have a generally rounded portion 66 and a stop portion 68.
The protrusions 38 can also include one or more biasing structures, such as a spring 70. In this manner, the springs 70 will bias the protrusions 38 from the inside surface 64 of the outer periphery 36 towards the watch case 28. Resultantly, the protrusions 38, or more specifically, the rounded portion 66, can contact the grooves 40 whereby the protrusions 38 will be forced away from the watch case 28 as they are guided along the watch case 28. The protrusions 38 will contact the recesses 42 whereby the protrusions 38 will be biased into the recesses 42 to resistively retain the watch case 28 in a desired orientation. When the protrusions 38 are not contacting the watch case 28, the stop portion 68 will prevent the spring 70 from forcing the protrusions 38 completely out of the outer periphery 36. The watch 20 can include any number of protrusions 38 as desired. In one form, the watch 20 includes four protrusions 38 and corresponding grooves 40 and recesses 42.
It should be noted that the outer periphery 36 is located a distance from and circumscribes the watch case 28. This distance and location permits the watch case 28 to rotate while within the outer periphery 36. Furthermore, the outer periphery 36 can help prevent the watch case 28 and the internal components from being damaged.
As discussed above, the spindle 37 assists in the rotation of the watch case 28 relative to the outer periphery 36. The spindle(s) 37 function as rotation points such that the watch case is permitted to rotate about an axis. The spindle 37 may take a variety of forms, such as a rod, bolt screw or the like as understood by those skilled in the art. In one form, the spindle 37 includes a narrowed portion 72 which may be inserted into the pivot recess 52 and/or the bushing 54. In one form, the spindle 37 is threaded into the outer periphery 36 and extends into the watch case 28. However, it should be understood that the spindle 37 may take other forms and may be maintained in the outer periphery in conventional manners as understood by those skilled in the art. Additionally, the spindle 37 and/or recess 52 may include bushings (not shown) or similar structures to assist in rotating the watch case 28.
The watch 20 may include a variety of internal components that may be used to keep and display time, as well as perform other functions. The watch 20 includes one or more forms of movements 80 to keep and display time. In one form, the movement is a mechanical movement 82 (shown schematically in
The watch 20 can have any number and type/combination of movements 80 as desired. For example, in one form, the watch 20 includes four separate movements 80 wherein each movement is quartz. In another form, the watch 20 includes one movement 80 that is quartz. In yet another form, the watch 20 includes four movements 80 that are mechanical. In another form, the watch 20 includes at least one quartz movement and one mechanical movement. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that any type, number and/or combination of movements may be utilized. Furthermore, the movements 80 may include additional functions and features. For example, the watch 20 may include a date function and/or a chronograph function. Moreover, the watch 20 can be designed such that the face which is not displayed when worn, will not be powered to display the time. The face will still operate keep correct time, but the face is not powered to conserve energy.
The movements 80 control the hands 27 which cooperate with the dials 26 to indicate time. The watch 20 can include any number ant type of dials 26 as understood by those skilled in the art. For example, various forms of dials 26 are illustrated in
The dials 26 and hands 27 can be viewed through one or more crystals 86. The crystals 86 can be any conventional crystal as understood by those skilled in the art. The watch 20 may include one crystal 86 per face 22,24. Alternatively, the watch 20 may include multiple crystals 86, such as two crystals 86 per face as shown in
The watch 20 may also include structures to adjust the time and operate other time keeping features of the watch. For example, the watch 20 includes one or more crowns 90. The crowns 90 include stems (not shown) which extend from the crowns 90 and can be used to manipulate the movements 80. Similarly, the watch 20 can include buttons (not shown) or other structure to manipulate the movements 80. Additionally, the watch 20 can include a combination of crowns 90 and buttons. The crowns 90 and/or buttons can be used to set or adjust the indicated time and date as well as start stop and adjust other watch features, such as a chronograph feature. Additionally, the crowns 90 can be used to wind the watch 20 in the case of mechanical movements.
The watch 20 can include any number of crowns 90 and/or buttons. For example, referring to
The crowns 90 and/or buttons can be located in various places on the watch 20. Referring to
The watch 20 may also include even further features as understood by those skilled in the art. For example, the watch 20 may include lugs 94, pin 96 and strap 98. These structures are generally understood by those skilled in the art of wrist watches. Specifically, these structures can be used to retain the watch 20 on a user's body, such as on the wrist. It should be understood that strap 98 may take a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, a strap and/or bracelet.
The watch 20 may be manufactured from a variety of materials as understood by those skilled in the art. For example, the watch 20 may be manufactured from metal, such as stainless steel, gold, platinum, titanium, silver and the like. Additionally, the watch 20 may be manufactured from other materials such as plastic, leather and other materials understood by those skilled in the art.
The watch 20 will generally function to keep time as understood by those skilled in the art. The watch 20 is reversible such that the watch case 28 rotates to expose a desired face 22,24 when worn by a user. The watch case 28 is rotatable about the spindle 37 and corresponding pivot recess 52 which cooperate to provide the pivot axis. In one form, the watch case 28 is rotatable either clockwise or counterclockwise about the axis. In another form, the watch case 28 can only rotate in a single direction. The watch case 28 is rotatable when the user loosens and/or removes the watch 20 from his or her body. In a preferred form, the watch case 20 rotates about the 12-6 axis, as represented by arrow 56 in
It should be noted that the watch case 28 is free to rotate without having to removed the watch case 28 from the outer periphery 36 and/or remove any portion of the outer periphery 36. This is because there is a distance between the watch case 28 and the outer periphery to permit such rotation.
The matter set forth in the foregoing description and accompanying drawings is offered by way of illustration only and not as a limitation. While particular embodiments have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the broader aspects of applicants' contribution. The actual scope of the protection sought is intended to be defined in the following claims when viewed in their proper perspective based on the prior art.
