Method for manufacturing luminescent hands
AssigneeThe Swatch Group Research and Development Ltd
InventorsPierpasquale Tortora, Cédric Blatter, Cyrille Gernez
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Abstract
A method for manufacturing a luminescent hand for a horological movement, preferably for a watch. The method includes providing a support comprising a light guide and structuring an emergent surface of the light guide so as to extract a maximum amount of light from the luminescent hand. The luminescent hand includes, over a lower face, a layer of luminescent material including one or more deposit(s) of fluorescent material, opposite a light source. The light source is laced at locations close to the axis of rotation or away from the axis of rotation but at a distance from the luminescent material. Thus, the light source is not placed on the luminescent hand.
Claims7
A method for manufacturing at least one luminescent hand for a horological movement, the manufacturing method comprising:
- providing at least one support supporting the luminescent hand;
- and
- forming on the at least one support a light guide comprising at least one emergent surface and being configured to guide a light, the forming step including the following sub-steps:
- depositing on said support at least one layer of a first optical material comprising a first refractive index and allowing preventing the light from being absorbed by the support;
- depositing at least one layer of luminescent material over the at least one layer of the first optical material;
- depositing of at least one layer of a second optical material, said at least one layer of a second optical material comprising a second refractive index;
- and,
- structuring said at least one emergent surface so that this emergent surface is rough so as to extract the light from said at least one light guide.
A luminescent hand for a horological movement comprising:
- a support supporting the hand;
- and
- a light guide, said at least one light guide comprising at least:
- a layer of a first optical material comprising a first refractive index and allowing preventing light from being absorbed by the support;
- a layer of luminescent material over the at least one layer of the first optical material;
- a layer of a second optical material comprising a second refractive index;
- and
- an emergent surface configured to be rough so as to extract light from said at least one light guide.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.