Underwater one-time-use camera with magnetic torque coupling for film winding

An underwater camera comprising a water-resistant casing, a camera housing contained in said water-resistant casing, a manually rotatable thumbwheel positioned outside said water-resistant casing, and coupling means for rotationally coupling said thumbwheel to a film spool rotatably supported in said camera housing to permit said thumbwheel to be manually rotated to similarly rotate said film spool, is characterized in that:

• said water-resistant casing has an exteriorly raised portion surrounding an interior central space;
• said thumbwheel is supported on said raised portion to be rotated around the raised portion, but leaves an annular space between the thumbwheel and said raised portion which is concentric with said central space;
• and
• said coupling means is a magnetic torque coupling including a driving ring of radially polarized magnets fixed to said thumbwheel in said annular space and a driven ring of radially polarized magnets rotatably supported in said central space, whereby said magnets of the driving ring and said magnets of the driven ring are magnetically coupled in a radial sense for synchronous rotation of said driving and driven rings to rotate said film spool when said thumbwheel is rotated.