JPH0345352B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an analog chronograph crystal watch.

Previously, mechanical watches were equipped with chronograph mechanisms, but the cam mechanisms and other components were extremely complex and large, making them unsuitable for practical use. Furthermore, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 49-95656, there was an idea to provide a chronograph mechanism to a crystal watch, but the specific structure was not disclosed and the idea was not available on the market. It was hot.

An object of the present invention is to provide a small, thin, and low power consumption configuration when adding a chronograph mechanism to an analog quartz watch.

The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the drawings. 1st
The figure shows a block diagram of the invention. A clock mechanism for normal time display uses a crystal oscillator as the time standard 21, for example. The oscillation signal of the crystal resonator is transmitted through MOS/IC as a high-density integrated circuit.
For example, the frequency dividing circuit 22 consisting of
The frequency is divided as a signal of times. This signal is shaped by the drive circuit 23 into a waveform for driving the motor. The shaped signal is input to a well-known step motor consisting of a rotor, stator, and coil of an electromagnetic transducer 24. The electric signal generated once per second is turned into a rotational motion by the converter 24, passes through the front wheel train 25, and indicates the time by the hour, minute, and second hand indicating wheel train 26. Up to this point, it is a well-known analog crystal watch, and the second hand moves once every second.
This is mainly to prevent an increase in current consumption due to intermittent movement of the hands, and to reduce the influence of disturbances by standing still during normal times. Next, by operating an external operating member 31 such as a winding stem or button, a signal is input into the watch body, and the internal input signal 32 causes the
A gate circuit 3 that can obtain a signal in the middle of frequency division from a frequency dividing circuit 22 that divides a signal to a normal clock.
3 will be provided. The frequency-divided signal passing through this gate is shaped by a chronograph drive circuit 27 in the same way as a normal watch, converted into rotational motion by a chronograph converter 28, and transmitted through a chronograph wheel train 29.
The measuring time can be indicated by the chronograph indicating wheel train 30 such as hours, minutes, seconds, etc.

The chronograph converter 28 is a step motor composed of a well-known rotor, stator, coil, etc., and the drive cycle of this step motor is shorter than the once-per-second signal used to drive a clock. For example, if the period is 1/10 second, the chronograph second hand will move 10 times faster than a normal watch, and when operating the chronograph, it will be able to read with an accuracy of 1/10 second. Conversely, this simply requires 10 times the current consumption to drive the step motor. However, in the present invention, the step motor of the timepiece drive converter 24 and the chronograph drive step motor 28 are constructed separately.
The speed reduction ratio of the gear train is determined so that the clock second hand rotates 6 degrees once per second through the rotor 6, which rotates 180 degrees once per second, the number wheel 5, and the pinion 44, and the chronograph second hand 14a rotates by 6 degrees once per second. is a rotor 1 that rotates 180° once every 0.1 seconds
8. Chronograph wheel 17, 16, 15, 14,
The reduction ratio of the chronograph wheel train is determined so that the chronograph wheel is rotated by 6 degrees 10 times per second through the chronograph wheel 13, and the reduction ratio of the chronograph wheel train is 10 times that of the watch seconds hand wheel train.

Current consumption is low for a step motor for a watch.
It has been put into practical use with battery life of around 1.5 μA and battery life of around 5 years. As a chronograph motor, there is no need for extra output torque to feed the calendar as is required for watches, and the coil can be small as it only needs to drive the second, minute, and hour hands of the chronograph. However, the current consumption is only about 1/3, which is sufficient. Furthermore, with a chronograph gear train that has a cycle that is 1/10 that of a normal watch, the reduction ratio from the chronograph rotor to the second hand can be increased by 10 times, and the output torque is 10 times the torque of a normal watch. From this point of view, it can be seen that there is no problem even if the step motor output of the chronograph is reduced. For example, the current consumption for a chronograph used to be 10 times the current required to make the cycle 1/10, but because the output torque can be reduced, the current consumption is 1/10
If it can be reduced to 3, the current consumption will be 10/3≒3.3 times. The current consumption of the crystal oscillator circuit is considered to be relatively small compared to the current for driving the motor, and if a watch with a lifespan of 5 years is used to constantly operate both a chronograph train and a regular watch, 5 years/3.3 + 1 ≒ 1.1 years. battery life. However, in reality, you should not use the chronograph all the time, or use a timer 60 that cuts off the chronograph drive signal after a certain period of time after the chronograph starts operating, or use it for one hour every day or after using the chronograph. Since the timer is configured to operate after one hour, 3.3 times the current consumption is required: 3.3/24H≒0.1375
Therefore, for a normal watch's current consumption of 1, the current consumption is 5/0.1375 + 1 = 4.4 years, and for a watch with a 3-year lifespan, it is 3/1.1375 ≒ 2.64 years, so it is possible to add a chronograph mechanism without significantly reducing battery life. can do.

The concrete structure of the present invention is shown in the plan view of Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.
This will be explained with reference to a cross-sectional view of the figure.

The structure of the signal generating circuit block 46, such as a crystal oscillator or MOSIC, has been explained in detail in FIG. 1 and will be omitted here. In an ordinary watch, a signal from a circuit is inputted to a coil 41 and converted into rotational motion by a converter of a rotor 6 consisting of a stator 42 and magnets, and the number wheels 5, 4,
It is composed of a front wheel train 3 and 2, and a pinion 44 for indicating a second hand, and a calendar mechanism (not shown) is activated by moving the hands in steps, for example, once every second. Next, a coil 45,
It consists of a stator 43, a rotor 18, chronograph numbers 17, 16, 15, 14, and 13, and a number wheel 12 for indicating the minute hand.

When viewed from the dial side of a normal watch, the minute hand 62 and hour hand 61 are located near the center of the dial as shown in Figure 3, and the second hand wheel 44 is away from the center, for example, in this figure as a second hand pinion. The chronograph second hand 14a is located near the center of the timepiece, and the chronograph minute hand 12a is located away from the center.
Although the chronograph hour hand is not shown, the minute hand can be slowed down and positioned away from the center like the minute hand. In other words, since the hands of a regular timepiece and a chronograph can be placed on the entire face of the dial, it is possible to give a powerful image similar to that of a mechanical chronograph. When using a chronograph, for example, in FIG. 2, by pressing the externally operated button 47, the lever 49 is displaced, and a part 49a of the lever comes into contact with the contact pin 53 coming out of the circuit, and a chronograph start signal is sent to the circuit. give. To stop, by pressing the button 48, the lever 50 is displaced, and by selection of the well-known chronograph operating cam 51, when the lever 50 is displaced, the hammer 52 is activated to the second hand 14 and minute wheel 12 of the chronograph. It engages with the fixed heart cam and returns to zero. This article has described the general operation of a chronograph, but unlike mechanical chronographs, a friction clutch mechanism is not used for the second hand position, and the watch wheel train and chronograph wheel train are independent, so the number wheels can be adjusted. It can be placed flat, preventing it from becoming thick like a mechanical chronograph.

In addition to the characteristic configuration described above, the chronograph mechanism of the present invention can exhibit further advantages as a crystal watch in the following points. In other words, if the second hand of a chronograph mechanism has the same scale on the dial as per minute, the chronograph step motor moves in steps of 1 second per second as a normal watch function. When the period is 10 seconds,
Since the chronograph second hand rotates by dividing the one-second scale into 10 equal parts, the chronograph hand appears to move smoothly at first glance. Therefore, since the movement of the second hand for a timepiece and the movement of the second hand for a chronograph are completely different between steps and sweeps, it is possible to provide an analog chronograph timepiece that is visually distinctive as a timepiece.

In addition, the second hand of the chronograph mechanism has a cycle of 1/10 seconds,
The rotation angle of the second hand is determined by one second scale per step of the motor, that is, the scale on the dial per second.
If you make it possible to rotate by 10 seconds, you can easily measure times in the 1/10 second range because the seconds scale corresponds to 1/10 seconds. This is a feature of a separate motor type that could not be easily achieved with conventional mechanical or tuning fork type chronograph watches, and the high precision characteristics of a crystal watch can also be demonstrated with a chronograph mechanism.
Again, the chronograph seconds hand rotates rapidly across the dial, making it clearly distinguishable from a regular seconds hand.

As described above, according to the present invention, the step motor drive coil for a chronograph with a short drive cycle and low load is formed smaller than the step motor drive coil for a normal timepiece, and the two drive coils are shifted in a plane. We aim to reduce power consumption by creating a compact prototype, making the effective value of the chronograph drive signal smaller than the drive signal for the watch step motor, and installing a timer that cuts off the chronograph drive signal after a predetermined period of time. It is ivy.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the present invention. 6...Watch rotor, 12a...Chronograph minute hand, 14a...Chronograph second hand, 21...
... Time standard, 22 ... Frequency dividing circuit, 23 ... Drive circuit, 24 ... Converter, 25 ... Front wheel train, 26 ...
Indication wheel train, 27...Chronograph drive circuit, 28
...Chronograph converter, 29...Chronograph train, 30...Chronograph indicator train, 31...
External operation member, 32... Internal input signal, 33...
Gate circuit, 41... Watch coil, 42... Watch stator, 44... Watch second hand wheel, 61...
Clock hour hand, 62...Clock minute hand.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Signal generation circuit block 4 comprising the only flat drive battery 40, time standard 21 and MOSIC
6, a coil 41 having a core in a direction parallel to the time board, a rotor 6 disposed at a position away from the coil, and a plate-shaped stator 42. A clock mechanism comprising a clock step motor driven by the clock step motor, and a clock indicator wheel train 25, 26 that is driven by the clock step motor to operate a clock second hand 44, a clock minute hand 62, and a clock hour hand 61; a chronograph drive circuit 27 operated by a second output signal from the signal generation circuit block output based on an input signal generated by the external operating member 31; and a coil 45 having a core oriented parallel to the watch board. and a rotor 18 and a plate-shaped stator 43 arranged at a position apart from the coil,
a chronograph step motor 28 driven by the chronograph drive circuit; and a chronograph second hand 14 driven by the chronograph step motor and having a driving cycle shorter than 1 second.
Chronograph indicator wheel train 29, 30 that operates a
The coil 41 and the coil 45 are arranged at offset positions in a plane, the minute hand for the clock, the hour hand for the clock, and the chronograph having a drive cycle shorter than one second. In addition to arranging the rotation center of the second hand on the same axis,
The timepiece second hand, which is driven at a cycle of one second, is arranged at a position away from the rotation center, and the reduction ratio of the chronograph wheel train is made larger than the reduction ratio of the timepiece wheel train, and the chronograph second hand An analog chronograph crystal watch, characterized in that the drive energy of the step motor for the watch is smaller than the drive energy of the step motor for the watch.