Abstract: A motor normally drives a gear-train which controls the hands when the motor is acted upon by pulses it receives from a driving circuit and which come from a divider and a quartz oscillator. In order to set an alarm to the desired time, a stem is moved by means of a crown to a setting position. The gear-train is then driven by a pinion and a wheel meshing with one another. The alarm time is recorded by a counter circuit owing to pulses supplied by a contact of a rotary detector. This time is stored in a memory when a push button is pressed. After the hands are returned to a position indicating the correct time of day, the counter circuit counts the elapsed time, and the alarm is set off when a coincidence circuit detects coincidence between the count of the counter and the data stored in the memory.

Abstract: A stator for a stepping motor comprises a cylindrical coil of compact size formed by winding wire directly on the center portion of a core. This center portion is coated with a film formed of a hard, compact insulating material adhering strongly to the core. An electrophoresis operation is used to obtain a film of minimum thickness in an efficient manner. The core includes end lugs which are bare on one face so that metallic contact can be established with the pole pieces of the stator. Prior to electrophoresis, the faces of the lugs intended to be bare are covered with a mask of synthetic material, preferably deposited while dissolved in a suitable solvent.

Abstract: In the quartz watch according to the invention all the time displaying hands (of the hours, the minutes and, possibly, the seconds) are kinematically permanently connected to each other, thus always displaying time in a very precise manner by their respective positions, whichever manipulations are made by the watch carrier.The addition to the conventional parts of the watch of a detector sensitive to the manually controlled displacements of the hands and of a counting device for finishing off these displacements and for memorizing the time impulses during the manual correction, ensures automatically setting the hands in the exact time indicating positions thus permitting the watch carrier who travels from one time zone into another one to make rapidly the necessary time alterations without prejudice of the previous precision of the time indication.

Abstract: A battery is placed in a recess in the plate of an electronic wrist watch movement. The battery cover presses against a spring contact fixed to a plate bearing a printed circuit. An insulating sheet insulates the battery from an inner flange of the movement plate. Disposed on the bottom of the battery casing is a pressure bracket having arms which resiliently grip the sidewall of the casing. Resilient radial tongues of the bracket are bent so as to be in contact with the back of the watch case which presses against the assembly at the time of casing-up so as to hold the battery in place. The connection to ground is established by a contact part and a screw, as well as by the contact between the battery casing and the movement plate and via the back of the watch case.

Abstract: The tracer head comprises a casing, an axially movable tracer and a radially movable tracer. The radially movable tracer comprises a ball head, a feeler disc and a stem connecting the ball head with the feeler disc. The ball head has the form of a ball zone, the lower flat surface of which rests on the bottom surface of the casing when the radially movable tracer is in its inoperative position. The upper surface of the ball head is a contact surface with the axially movable tracer. The ball-like circumference surface of the ball head lies free of play on the inside wall of the casing. The stem passes with a certain amount of play through a bore provided in the bottom of the casing. The axially movable tracer contacts the upper flat surface of the ball head always only in one point. By means of this a precise transfer of the tilting movements of the radially movable tracer is secured. The tracer head has a substantially smaller diameter than the known tracer heads.

Abstract: The watch comprises a detecting device including a resilient blade, the free end of which cooperates with a disk. When a slot in the edge of the disk is oriented in the direction of the blade, the latter vibrates owing to its own resiliency. The two edges of the slot are preferably bent in opposite directions in order to increase the bending stress on the blade just before its abrupt release into the slot. A piezoelectric strip fixed to the blade registers voltage fluctuations, the polarity of which corresponds to the direction in which the blade moves.

Abstract: A stator for a stepping motor comprises a cylindrical coil of compact size formed by winding wire directly on the center portion of a core. This center portion is coated with a film formed of a hard, compact insulating material adhering strongly to the core. An electrophoresis operation is used to obtain a film of minimum thickness in an efficient manner. The core includes end lugs which are bare on one face so that metallic contact can be established with the pole pieces of the stator. Prior to electrophoresis, the faces of the lugs intended to be bare are covered with a mask of synthetic material, preferably deposited while dissolved in a suitable solvent.

Abstract: A stepping motor particularly intended for electronic watches comprises two poles connected to a core bearing an elongated coil. The poles are joined at nose portions thereof by interposed elements of a material having a magnetic permeability as close as possible to 1. The one-piece stator may be formed by blanking from a composite band, thus considerably simplifying the problem of positioning the poles of the stator relative to the plate of the watch movement and to the rotor. A method of fabricating the one-piece stators efficiently consists in rolling together two strips of ferromagnetic metal and an interposed fillet of non-magnetic metal, these elements being joined at their edges to form a composite band from which the stators are blanked.

Abstract: In a timepiece movement, more particularly a quartz wrist watch movement, having a low-torque stepping motor, there is provided a differential mechanism which drives the hands and makes it possible to move the hour-hand alone in jumps. A cannon-pinion having a toothing acts as a sun gear. A planet gear is mounted on an hour-wheel which acts as a planet carrier. A ring gear takes the form of an annulus having internal teeth which is normally stationary but is controlled by a stem and can be rotated by jumps to cause the planet gear to roll along the cannon-pinion toothing, thus causing the planet carrier and consequently the hour hand to jump.

Abstract: A mechanical watch movement of the type wherein a balance-cock supports a balance arranged to pivot in bearings about a fixed axis, and a balance-spring is fixed at its inner end to the balance and at its outer end to a bent arm of a thin, blanked plate constituting a support member detachable from the remainder of the movement.

Abstract: An arrangement for securing a timepiece dial having feet to a plate having bores for receiving the feet comprises attachment means each having a shank with a head, each shank being inserted in an additional bore in the plate substantially parallel to a bore receiving a foot. The head includes a collar, taking the form of a cutting edge, which partially surrounds the head and shank concentrically. The shank includes a cylindrical portion fitted to the diameter of the additional bore and another cylindrical portion of smaller diameter so that the shank may be more easily inserted in that bore.

Abstract: A balance spring support which is blanked out or stamped to a shape such as to embrace at least two faces of the outer end of the balance spring. A bond is used for securing said outer end of the balance spring to at least one of said faces. The support is detachable from the rest of the movement.

Abstract: A pallet lever which is made by first stamping regions, the surfaces of which will be working surfaces and thereafter blanking out the shape of the lever to dimensions in excess of the area of the stamped portion so that the working surfaces of the stamped portion are protected against surface damage to the blanking out operation.

Abstract: A one-piece regulator key for watch movements includes two spaced apart prongs projecting from and integral with a common support, each prong has an inward plane surface facing and substantially parallel to a like inward plane surface on the other prong and is provided at its free end with an inwardly projecting protuberance for decreasing the spacing between the prongs at their free ends.

Abstract: An improved extractable barrel-arbor for a watch movement is provided with first and second end cylindrical pivot bearing surfaces, and a central cylindrical surface containing a hook. The radius of the central surface is less than the radius of the first and second end cylindrical surfaces while the distance between the axis of the barrel-arbor and the outer hooking edge of the hook is equal to the radius of at least one of the first and second pivot bearing surfaces.

Abstract: A timepiece having a toothed calendar ring and a driving wheel for advancing the calendar ring, wherein the driving wheel comprises a hub and a completely closed toothed rim having a driving tooth. The rim is connected to the hub by a resilient member so that the driving tooth makes way for a tooth of the calendar ring when the calendar ring is driven by means other than the driving wheel.

Abstract: A method of producing an oscillating weight for an automatic wristwatch. The oscillating weightcomprises a heavy-metal segment and a metallic center portion having a flanged rim. For attaching the center portion to the heavy-metal segment, an arcuate groove is formed in the upper surface of the segment, the flanged rim of the center portion is axially inserted in the groove which is slightly wider than the flanged rim, and at one or more locations a portion of the segment is wedged over the rim or a portion of the rim is wedged in the groove by exerting a localized pressure substantially at right angles to the plane of the center portion.

Abstract: A method of punching a small hole in a precision mechanics workpiece, in that the thickness of the workpiece is reduced by the application of pressure in the region where the small hole is to be punched and the material is thereby strengthened, steps being taken to cause the material subjected to pressure to be displaced in the direction of pressure and to yield at right angles hereto. The small hole is punched in the region subjected to pressure at a distance from the edge of that region corresponding at least to the diameter of the small hole, so that the small hole is certain to be punched at a location in that region where the material is strengthened and sound.

Abstract: A watch movement frame comprising a plate having openings therein, a bridge, and at least one spacer member mounted edgewise between the bridge and the plate. The bridge includes separate centering structure and securing structure and the edge portion of the spacer member in contact with the bridge includes corresponding separate centering structure and securing structure. The centering structure of the bridge and of the edge portion cooperate to position the bridge relative to the plate regardless of the inclination of the spacer member and the securing structure of the bridge and of the edge portion cooperate to secure the bridge to the spacer member.

Abstract: The balance cock 35, the train wheel bridge 36 and the barrel bridge 37 are positioned with great precision and univocally on the baseplate 40 by means of an arrangement comprising a pair of feet 38 on every bridge, elongated holes 39 in the baseplate being engaged by feet 38, and securing screws 42, 44, 45 driven into the baseplate 40. Each screw has a conical face on its head and it passes through an opening 41, 46 of the bridge. The conical face of each screw engages the edge of the corresponding bridge opening at one point, thus exerting a thrust on the bridge in the direction of the arrows causing each one of the two feet 38 of a bridge to bear against a plane side wall of the corresponding hole 39 and one foot of each bridge to bear against the rounded end face of its hole.