Watch mechanism incorporating two barrels
AssigneeCompagnie des Montres Longines, Francillon S.A.
InventorsMichel Thomi, Raymond Studer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A watch mechanism incorporating two barrels each containing a spring. The springs contained in each barrel are positively connected in series to each other via a gear mechanism or a common arbor. The considerable energy available makes it possible to maintain the movement of a high frequency spring balance oscillator. The barrel rotates rapidly to drive the first pinion of the train of gears with an angular velocity approximately double relative to the normal angular velocities; the torque is approximately half (600 gr.mm) that of conventional-sized watch mechanism of comparable performance. The barrels may be mounted coaxially or in the same plane and the mechanism can be arranged to be wound manually or automatically.
Claims22
A watch mechanism having a running time of less than 72 hours comprising a first and second driving barrel, a first and second spring respectively contained in said first and second driving barrel, said springs being connected in series, one of the ends of said first spring being positively connected to one of the ends of said second spring, the other end of one of the springs being secured to a toothed wheel which maintains, by means of a gear-train, the movement of a spring balance oscillator, the transmission ratio of the gear-train and the springs being chosen so that the angular velocity of the barrel containing the second spring is higher than 0.3 turns per hour.
A watch mechanism having a running time of less than 72 hours comprising
- a first driving barrel;
- a second driving barrel;
- a first spring contained in said first driving barrel;
- a second spring contained in said second driving barrel;
- means for connecting said first and second springs in series such that one of the ends of said first spring is positively connected to one of the ends of said second spring;
- a spring balance oscillator;
- a gear train connected between said spring balance oscillator and one of said barrels such that said one barrel can maintain the movement of said spring balance oscillator, said gear train comprised of a plurality of interconnected wheels and pinions that are free from any connection to a minute wheel and having a transmission ratio which in combination with said springs is chosen so that the sum of the angular velocities of said driving barrels is at least 0.3 turns per hour.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.