Click mechanism of a timepiece

In a timepiece having a winding stem mounted for manual axial movement to a plurality of axial operating positions;

• a click mechanism for said winding stem comprising a plurality of circumferential grooves axially spaced apart along a section of the length of said winding stem;
• and a detent spring coacting with said winding stem to releasably retain said stem in a manually selected one of said operating positions and enabling manual axial movement of said stem between said operating positions with a click action, said detent spring having an elongate portion extending lengthwise alongside said winding stem in side-by-side relationship therewith as viewed from the front of the timepiece, a detent portion connected to said elongate portion and extending transversely thereof in the sideways direction towards said winding stem to resiliently engage within respective ones of said grooves in dependence upon the axial position of said winding stem to thereby releasably retain said stem in the manually selected operating position and being movable in the sideways direction to disengage from and slide along said grooves due to resilient flexing of said detent spring caused by manual axial movement of said winding stem to thereby enable axial movement of said stem with click action between said operating positions, and an operating portion connected to and extending parallel to said elongate portion and being constrained to move in a predetermined direction by sliding contact with a part of the timepiece thereby constraining said detent portion to move in said sideways direction during flexing of said detent spring caused by axial movement of said winding stem.