US RE38,110 E1 · Electronically controlled mechanical timepiece and control method therefor

Abstract

An electronically controlled mechanical timepiece includes: a voltage-controlled oscillator (25) including a generator that uses a rotor (12) driven by a spring (1a) to rotate, and a brake circuit (23) for controlling the rotation cycle of the generator (20); and a rotation control circuit (50) for controlling the rotation cycle of the generator (20) by controlling the brake circuit (23). The rotation control circuit (50) includes a phase-comparison circuit (54) for comparing the phases of rectangular-wave pulses fr output from a VCO (25) and time standard signal fs, and a brake control circuit (56) for inputting, based on an output from the phase-comparison circuit (54), a signal for controlling the brake circuit (23) to voltage-controlled oscillator (25). By providing the VCO (25) and the phase-comparison circuit (54), PLL control is realized to enable a rapidly responsive system.

Claims8

Dependent claims

An electronically controlled mechanical timepiece comprising:

a mechanical energy source;
a wheel train bridge ;
a generator driven by said mechanical energy source and connected to said mechanical energy source by said wheel train bridge , said generator generating induced electric power for supplying electric energy;
a brake circuit that brakes said generator in response to a braking control signal;
pointers connected to said wheel train bridge ;
and a rotation control circuit that controls said brake circuit to control the rotation cycle of said generator;
wherein said rotation control circuit comprises:
a rotation detection circuit that generates a rotation signal of said generator;
a target-signal generating circuit that generates a target signal corresponding to a target number of revolutions;
a phase-difference compensating circuit that detects a phase difference between said rotation signal output from said rotation detection circuit, and said target signal output from said target-signal generating circuit, and outputs a phase-difference compensation signal that is input to said brake circuit as said braking control signal.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Electronically controlled mechanical timepiece and control method therefor

Life of this patent

Electronically controlled mechanical timepiece and control method therefor

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims8