US 4,382,697 AGranted

Electronic timepiece

AssigneeSeikosha Co., Ltd.

InventorMasanori Fujita

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Abstract

An electronic timepiece in which an optical hand display device is composed of a plurality of segment electrodes of the shape of hands that are radially arrayed and opposing common electrodes that are divided into groups via a liquid crystal, the segment electrodes located at predetermined positions are electrically connected together, the segment electrodes being divided into groups each consisting of a predetermined number of segment electrodes, and time information is displayed by hands for each predetermined digits in a time-divisional manner. According to the electronic timepiece of the present invention, the number of terminals to the electrodes is reduced, and time can be clearly displayed by hands requiring reduced number of selection voltages.

Claims2

Dependent claims

An electronic timepiece in which display elements in the shape of second, minute and hour hands are enabled to display at the same time, comprising:

an optical display device having a number of separate display elements in the shape of hands and including electrodes comprised of a number of segment electrodes in the shape of hands arranged extending radially from a point, and common electrodes formed in at least two concentric rings and divided into sectorlike electrodes each of which opposes a group of an equal number of the segment electrodes, means comprised of circuit paths for connecting a corresponding segment electrode in each of the groups without crossing one another, and optical display material between the segment electrodes and the common electrodes;
time counting means receptive of clock pulses for generating a time-count-output representing at least seconds, minutes and hours;
a timing pulse generator for generating timing pulses;
a selection circuit receptive of timing pulses for generating time-divisionally each time unit of the time-count-output in synchronization with the timing pulses;
first means for decoding one place of each time unit of the time-count-output generated by the selection circuit to logical values for selecting a set of connected corresponding segment electrodes;
second means for decoding a second place of each time unit of the time-count-output generated by the selection circuit to logical values for selecting a sector-like electrode;
converting means for changing the order of the output from the first means in accordance with whether the number of the second place-output selected by the selection circuit is an even number or odd number;
a segment voltage supply circuit for applying selectively the voltages 0, V.sub.0, 2V.sub.0 and 3V.sub.0 to the respective segment electrodes in accordance with the output from the second means;
and
a common voltage supply circuit for applying selectively the voltages 0, V.sub.0, 2V.sub.0 and 3V.sub.0 to the respective section-like electrodes, so as to periodically apply to the display element to be turned ON the voltage .vertline.3V.sub.0 .vertline. between each segment electrode and each sector-like electrode and so as to periodically apply to the display element to be turned OFF the voltage .vertline.V.sub.0 .vertline. between each segment electrode and each sector-like electrode.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

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Abstract

An electronic timepiece in which display elements in the shape of second, minute and hour hands are enabled to display at the same time, comprising:

an optical display device having a number of separate display elements in the shape of hands and including electrodes comprised of a number of segment electrodes in the shape of hands arranged extending radially from a point, and common electrodes formed in at least two concentric rings and divided into sectorlike electrodes each of which opposes a group of an equal number of the segment electrodes, means comprised of circuit paths for connecting a corresponding segment electrode in each of the groups without crossing one another, and optical display material between the segment electrodes and the common electrodes;
time counting means receptive of clock pulses for generating a time-count-output representing at least seconds, minutes and hours;
a timing pulse generator for generating timing pulses;
a selection circuit receptive of timing pulses for generating time-divisionally each time unit of the time-count-output in synchronization with the timing pulses;
first means for decoding one place of each time unit of the time-count-output generated by the selection circuit to logical values for selecting a set of connected corresponding segment electrodes;
second means for decoding a second place of each time unit of the time-count-output generated by the selection circuit to logical values for selecting a sector-like electrode;
converting means for changing the order of the output from the first means in accordance with whether the number of the second place-output selected by the selection circuit is an even number or odd number;
a segment voltage supply circuit for applying selectively the voltages 0, V.sub.0, 2V.sub.0 and 3V.sub.0 to the respective segment electrodes in accordance with the output from the second means;
and
a common voltage supply circuit for applying selectively the voltages 0, V.sub.0, 2V.sub.0 and 3V.sub.0 to the respective section-like electrodes, so as to periodically apply to the display element to be turned ON the voltage .vertline.3V.sub.0 .vertline. between each segment electrode and each sector-like electrode and so as to periodically apply to the display element to be turned OFF the voltage .vertline.V.sub.0 .vertline. between each segment electrode and each sector-like electrode.

7 more elements