Horology: time measuring systems or devices – Winding means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-21
2002-08-27
Miska, Vit (Department: 2841)
Horology: time measuring systems or devices
Winding means
C081S007500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06439761
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an electronic watch winder, and in particular to a watch winder that is useful in winding stem-wound watches.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In mechanical watches, as opposed to battery-powered watches, a mainspring exerts a force against a series of interconnected gears, balance wheels and escapements that rotate the watch hands and other components. The two basic types of mechanical watches are automatic or self-winding watches, and manually-wound watches. The mainsprings in automatic watches are wound by rotating or oscillating an attached weight by normal movement of the user's wrist. Springs in manually-wound watches are wound by rotation of a stem or crown that has an inner end in operative communication with the mainspring and an outer end projecting from the watch case to be grasped by the user.
The mainspring of an automatic watch is wound sufficiently to continue watch operation so long as the user wears the watch. However, the watch will stop if it is not worn for a period of time, requiring the user to reset the watch to the correct time when the watch is again worn. Manual-winding mechanisms are often used in watches, which include additional mechanisms, known as complications, to provide other information, e.g., the date or moon phases, in addition to the time. The complexity of these watches is such that resetting the watch is a complicated task, in some cases even requiring the services of a jeweler to reset the watch.
Various mechanisms called watch winders have been designed to wind the springs of self-winding watches when the watches are not being worn. Basically, these watch winders are comprised of a watch support to hold the watch at a desired orientation on the winder and a means for moving the watch support in a predetermined pattern, usually at periodic intervals. The movement pattern is preferably designed to simulate the movement of a user's wrist, thereby rotating or oscillating the weight in accordance with the watch's design to keep the spring wound. Examples of such devices are described in the following U.S. patents:
U. S. Pat. No.
Inventor(s)
2,863,345
Fiechter
2,917,955
Leger
2,926,519
Setterberg
3,620,007
Kauffman
4,057,958
Wuntch
5,608,693
Richards
The devices described in the above patents, while being suitable to varying degrees in the winding of self-winding watches, are of no use in the winding of stem-wound watches that require rotation of the watch crown relative to the watch case. U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,871 to Bonnet, on the other hand, describes a device that is designed to address the need to wind mechanical crown-wound watches. The Bonnet device is basically comprised of a watch holder that supports the watch with the watch stem aligned along a given longitudinal axis; a gripping assembly that includes a shaft aligned along the given longitudinal axis, with multiple claws at the end of the shaft toward the watch holder for gripping the crown of the watch; and an electric motor for intermittently rotating the collet shaft while the stem crown is gripped by the claws, thereby winding the watch spring.
Different brands and styles of manually-wound watches, and even manually-wound watches of the same brand or style, require different numbers of stem rotations, e.g., from about 20 to about 80 rotations, to fully wind the watch spring. Also, the number of rotations needed to fully wind a given watch will depend on the extent to which the watch has been unwound when winding is initiated. Therefore, a winding device cannot simply wind all watches for the same number of rotations. If so, some watches would be overwound, risking damage to the watch mechanism, while other watches would be underwound, resulting in the watch ultimately stopping.
Bonnet recognizes this problem and attempts to solve it by requiring the user to manually set the Bonnet watch winder to the characteristics of the specific watch to be wound. That is, when using the Bonnet winder, the user first winds the watch by hand while counting the number of turns required to fully wind the watch. The winder is then set with an adjustment wheel to provide a number of crown rotations approximating the number counted. Each time the watch is worn, the wearer must fully wind the watch before it is placed back on the winder. In order to prevent overwinding, the Bonnet crown grabber is spring loaded and designed to act as a clutch, so that the claws slip in the sleeve of the winding apparatus.
The solution proposed by Bonnet to address the variations in watch design and the resultant needs of manually-wound watches for differing numbers of rotations is time consuming and less than satisfactory. Setting of the Bonnet for a single watch requires the wearer to correctly estimate the number of crown rotations required to fully wind the watch, an exercise prone to error since the number of turns counted will vary depending on whether the user begins winding the watch when it is fully or only partially unwound. Then, the wearer must set the winder to simulate the correct number of turns, which is often a trial and error activity.
Also, even if the winder is correctly set, the procedure renders the winder useful for winding only a single watch. If the wearer owns two or more manually-wound watches, as is often the case, a separate winder must be purchased for each watch, or the winder must be reset each time a different watch is to be wound. Furthermore, the safety mechanism proposed to prevent overwinding allows the motor to keep running even after the watch is fully wound.
Thus, there is still a need for a winder for mechanical manually-wound watches, including both wrist watches and pocket watches, that automatically compensates for differences in watch designs, permitting the winder to be used for more than a single watch without manual resetting, as well as for a watch winder that will automatically stop when the watch is fully wound, preventing possible damage to the watch and/or the winder. A watch winder meeting these requirements which could also be used to wind self-winding watches in addition to manually-wound watches would be of particular utility.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses these needs by providing a mechanical watch winder that is generally comprised of a watch holder assembly to position a watch with the stem aligned along a given longitudinal axis, a crown collet that includes a rotatable shaft aligned along the longitudinal axis and a spring-loaded crown collet passing through the shaft that is toward the watch holder assembly, a DC motor operatively connected to rotate the shaft, a control assembly to disconnect the motor from the power source when the watch is fully wound, and a housing enclosing the other winder components. Additional features may be included to control the operation of the motor, and to provide information to the user.
The watch holder assembly includes a watch support to hold a watch so that the watch stem is aligned along a first given longitudinal axis. Various types of supports may be used. For example, the support can be in the form of cylinder, with the watch band being attached around the cylinder. Alternatively, the support can include clamping jaws that can be clamped onto the watch case. In this latter design, the jaws may be spring loaded.
The watch support is preferably carried on a support shaft that is aligned along a second given longitudinal axis parallel to the first given longitudinal axis along which the stem is oriented, with the shaft being moveable to set locations between inner and outer positions along the second given longitudinal axis. The shaft may also include a spring or other biasing means may be used to urge the shaft toward one of the positions, and a stop to limit the extent to which the shaft can be moved toward the inner and/or outer position.
The crown collet grips the watch crown and rotates the watch stem when the motor is energized, and includes a rotatable shaft that is align
,MacCord Mason PLLC
Goodwin Jeanne-Marguerite
Miska Vit
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