Electronic timepiece

An analog-to-digital time data conversion system for an electronic timepiece comprising a source of a standard time signal, frequency divider circuit means for dividing the frequency of said standard time signal to provide a time unit signal including a pulse train having a frequency of 1 Hz and a periodical transfer signal, driver circuit means responsive to said time unit signal for producing a drive signal, electro-mechanical transducing means driven by said drive signal, a wheel train driven by said electro-mechanical transducing means for reducing the speed of movement and transmitting the mechanical displacement of said electro-mechanical transducing means, and analog time indicating means driven by said wheel train for indicating time information, comprising:

• at least one coded disk coupled to said wheel train for being rotated thereby, said coded disk including a plurality of areas mutually differentiated to represent the bits of a multiple-bit digital code, adjacent groups of said areas representing code combinations of said multi-bit digital code, and each of said code combinations representing a point in time indicated by said analog time indicating means;
• means for successively detecting said code combinations as said coded disk rotates, said detection means providing a plurality of digital code signals;
• code conversion means responsive to said digital code signals for producing digital time data signals indicative of said time information, said time data signals comprising a first set of digital time data signals for indicating minutes information and a second set of digital time data signals for indicating hours information;
• transfer circuit means coupled to receive said transfer signal, and said first and second digital time data signals;
• a seconds counter circuit for counting said time unit signal and for producing an output signal when sixty pulses of said time unit signal have been counted;
• a minutes counter circuit coupled to receive said output signal from said seconds counter circuit and for producing an output signal when sixty pulses of said output signal from said seconds counter circuit have been counted;
• and
• an hours counter coupled to receive said output signal from said minutes counter circuit;
• said minutes counter and said hours counter being coupled to output terminals of said transfer circuit means, whereby a count held in said minutes counter and a count held in said hours counter circuit are respectively replaced by a numeric value represented by said first set of digital time data signals and by a numeric value represented by said second set of digital time data signals when said transfer signal is generated.