Shock absorbing pivot bearing for rotary watch parts

A shock-absorbing pivot bearing for a rotary watch part, especially the balance wheel, having a shaft ending in a pivot tip, comprising, in combination:

• a rigid and fixed hollow body member;
• a flat resilient member substantially perpendicular to the pivot axis of said pivot tip and having a peripheral portion secured to said body member and a circular inner portion normally resting in an unstressed central position within said body member, said inner portion being freely and resiliently yieldable away from said centered position in an axial direction and in a tilting direction about any one of its diameters;
• a bearing member carried by said resilient member and projecting substantially perpendicularly from the inner portion thereof away from the watch part pivoted in the bearing, said bearing member having an inner surface surrounding a space for receiving said pivot tip and adjacent shaft portion, said inner surface being more splayed than the shaft portion entering the space it surrounds, in order that the frictional engagement between the pivot and its bearing occurs substantially exclusively at a point of the pivot tip and a point of said inner surface of the bearing member remote from said resilient member;
• and radial abutting means comprising the wall of a circular opening which surrounds and is spaced from said shaft section, a radial impact thus causing the pivot tip and the part of the bearing member remote from the resilient member to move together in a direction substantially perpendicular to the bearing axis, the inner portion of said resilient member tilting about its diameter which is perpendicular to the direction of the impact, said resilient member being bent only until said shaft section engages said radial abutting means.