Patents Examined by Jeanne-Marguerite Goodwin
  • Patent number: 7443767
    Abstract: Allowing an electronic schedule to be automatically updated by a device with the time zone where the device is presently located.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2008
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Bridget Marie Mohler, David Scott Mohler
  • Patent number: 7420881
    Abstract: The device includes data entry means (10), control means (14) connected to means (12) for displaying said data. The invention is characterised in that it further includes a processing unit (16) inserted between the data entry means (10) and the control means (14). The processing unit (16) includes a memory (11) for storing reference times and particularly the Time Out, a counter (18) storing the time TC that elapses from the start of a manipulation and the time TM the elapses between two manipulations, and a comparator (21) including a first comparison unit (23), which acts on the one hand on an ON/OFF switch (24) to interrupt, via control means (14) the energy supply when TC>TO and which, on the other hand, enables TO to be altered at the end of a series of manipulations as a function of certain reference times of the memory and the speed at which the manipulations have been carried out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2008
    Assignee: ASULAB S.A.
    Inventors: Erik Jan Frenkel, Jean-Charles Guanter
  • Patent number: 7410289
    Abstract: A watchwinder adapted for home use or in a retail store environment includes a horizontal dovetail groove or channel on the top, bottom and side surfaces of the watchwinder housing which cooperates with a removable interlocking bar or rail of mating dovetail shape to selectively and detachably interconnect adjacent watchwinders arranged in a vertical or side-by-side relation. The grooves preferably extend across the horizontal dimension of the watchwinder to a point short of the front of the housing for concealment purposes, and are made relatively wide in relation to the dimensions of the housing to improve rigidity of an interlocked grouping of watchwinders and to simplify assembly. Preferably, the channels are of equal size and shape and spaced equidistantly apart. An array of interlocked watchwinders can be built up to varying size and shape, and one or more of the watchwinders can be selectively removed from anywhere within the array without disturbing the others.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2008
    Assignee: Wolf Designs, Inc.
    Inventor: Paul D. Hill
  • Patent number: 7408846
    Abstract: The ornamental article is a bangle or ring which can house a watch or item of jewelry. The article has two or more planar portions fixed at a 90° angle and a display area that spans the surface of at least two of the planar portions to form a continuous angled display area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2008
    Inventor: Fredi Brodmann
  • Patent number: 7401975
    Abstract: To obtain a degree of freedom in a design of a circumference part of a timepiece armor assembly, and provide a watch whose degree of freedom in a size of a dial is high. A timepiece armor assembly is formed of an armor case of one-piece structure in which a case bottom wall and a case band part provided with a crown have been monolithically molded and of an armor cover which has a transparent member and an edge member supporting a circumference edge of the former member and has been mounted to the case band part. In the armor assembly, a timepiece movement which has a movement main body and a winding stem attached to this main body so as to be capable of being inserted into or detached from it and connected to the crown, and a dial are built, and a winding stem attachment/detachment mechanism which makes an insertion/detachment of the winding stem into/from the main body possible is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2008
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Haruki Hiranuma, Nobukazu Omori
  • Patent number: 7400556
    Abstract: An electronic timepiece with a solar cell includes a timepiece movement, a timepiece case for housing the timepiece movement, a casing ring for housing and holding the timepiece movement in the timepiece case, a solar cell and a dial. The solar cell is disposed almost vertically to a solar cell positioning portion provided in the casing ring, and the solar cell has a slender strip shape formed on a flexible substrate. Consequently, the solar cell is not disposed in the timepiece movement, and it is only necessary to change the casing ring as an external component even when a panel cover diameter is changed. Further, a solar cell can be coiled to match the size of the casing ring when it is incorporated in the casing ring, so that a common solar cell can be used despite a change in the panel cover diameter of the timepiece.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2008
    Assignee: Citizen Watch Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Osa, Tomomi Murakami, Hitoshi Fujita
  • Patent number: 7396155
    Abstract: An antenna is positioned relative to one or more other components within a metal or alloy case member/back cover assembly of an electronic timepiece having a radio communication function to facilitate reception of radio waves by the antenna, and/or to reduce negative effects on the signal reception ability of the antenna caused by one or more other components. Thus positioning the antenna improves its reception, while the external appearance of the timepiece can be maintained or enhanced by using metal or alloy for the case member/back cover assembly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2008
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Isao Oguchi
  • Patent number: 7385876
    Abstract: A radio-controlled timepiece includes a regional-information storage unit that stores information on a target time region, a receiving circuit that receives a standard frequency that contains UTC time information, and that outputs a received signal, a regional-time calculating unit that calculates a current time of the target time region based on the information on the target time region and the received signal, a display unit that displays the current time calculated, a display-time correcting unit that corrects the current time to be displayed in DST or in standard time in timing determined based on the current time when information on a DST switching day is included in the received signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2008
    Assignee: Citizen Holdings Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Ihara, Akinari Takada, Masaaki Namekawa, Masami Fukuda, Minoru Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 7364352
    Abstract: A mechanism having at least a function of measuring an arbitrary elapsed time is provided, which disables the function from being reset after the function is started, and enables the function to be reset after the function is stopped. The function is continuously held in an electrical ON state after being started, except when being normally stopped. This provides a time measurement device and method in which an electrical operating state and a mechanical operating state can coincide.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2008
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hidehiro Akahane, Kenichi Okuhara, Akihiko Maruyama, Nobuhiro Koike
  • Patent number: 7366059
    Abstract: The invention relates to a display device for a wristwatch comprising a luminescent surface for illuminating the background of a display element consisting of one or more alphanumeric characters. The display device comprises a window in an opaque watch face in which these characters can be displayed. The luminescent surface covers at least one partial area of a supporting surface situated behind said window. The alphanumeric characters of the display element have an opaque material and are located between the watch face and the luminescent surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2008
    Assignee: Eterna AG Uhrenfabrik
    Inventor: Ernst Seyr
  • Patent number: 7362662
    Abstract: A timepiece includes a display face having a color time field with a first axis representing a first unit of time and a second axis representing a second unit of time, wherein a colored section fills the color time field as time elapses and wherein a current color displayed in the colored section is one color in a set of different colors that correspond to a predetermined measurement of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2008
    Inventor: Timothy R. Lang
  • Patent number: 7362659
    Abstract: A method and system for accurate timing in a low current system useful in fuzing applications generates a first count of oscillations of an oscillator of unknown frequency during a first period of unknown duration. A second count of oscillations of the oscillator is generated during a second period of a known duration. The duration of the first period is calculated based on the first count and the second count. A solid-state, thin-film battery is able to be used by virtue of low-current characteristics of the system, enabling extended shelf life for fuzing systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2008
    Assignee: Action Manufacturing Company
    Inventors: Jonathan Siebott, Richard Frantz
  • Patent number: 7357569
    Abstract: A crown lock structure for a timepiece has a crown having an inner surface provided with a threaded section and a connecting assembly for removably connecting the crown to a case of the timepiece. The connecting assembly comprises a tubular member for integral connection to the timepiece case and a tubular insert removably connected to the tubular member. The tubular member has a first tubular portion for insertion into a through-hole of the timepiece case and a second tubular portion integral with the first tubular portion and removably connected to the tubular insert so as to prevent relative rotation between the tubular member and the tubular insert. The tubular insert has a threaded section for threaded engagement with the threaded section of the crown to removably connect the crown to the timepiece case.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2008
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventor: Hisamitsu Yoshikawa
  • Patent number: 7352657
    Abstract: A hanger for mounting an object on a surface such as a wall. The hanger includes a slot that receives a projection such as a nail extending from the wall. The slot is nonlinear and provides an entry path through which the projection travels to reach its mounting position. The hanger also includes slot branches extending from the slot, which together with the slot create a maze through which the projection travels when the object is attempted to be removed from the wall. The slot branches provide dead end paths that the projection may encounter when the object is attempted to be removed from the wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2008
    Assignee: Quartex, a division of Primex, Inc.
    Inventor: Terrence John O'Neill
  • Patent number: 7339856
    Abstract: A novel device for displaying the correct time comprises a clock with interchangeable and attachable panels comprising decorative indicia or figures; a second hand with replaceable indicia or figures, minute hand, and hour hand; and means to drive said timing hands. The interchangeable panel is removably attached to the front face of a clock with a viewing window for viewing the normal travel of the second, minute, and hour hands. The movement of the second hand with the replaceable indicia simulates a sports action as it moves from the 9:00 position to the 3:00 position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2008
    Inventor: Kevin Hardesty
  • Patent number: 7321528
    Abstract: The invention relates to a watch movement comprising an annular casing (10), having an external diameter D, which is provided with a central round opening (48) that is defined by an internal diameter d. According to the invention, the gear train (34) comprises a mobile (36) consisting of a minute wheel (36a) and a pinion (36b), a cannon pinion (38), which is driven by the minute wheel (36a) and intended to support a minute hand (40), and an hour wheel (42) which is driven by the pinion (36b) and intended to support an hour hand (44). The cannon pinion (38) and the hour casing (10) and are provided with a central opening that is more or less equal to d. The minute wheel (36a) is provided with a diameter that is slightly smaller than (D?d)/2.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2008
    Inventors: Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, Saskia Bouvier
  • Patent number: 7318669
    Abstract: A spring-barrel arrangement for a timepiece includes a fixed plate-like component with a circular cutout. A spring barrel is rotatably mounted in said circular cutout by its corresponding circular outer contour. A barrel core is coaxially rotatably mounted relative to the spring barrel and is enclosed by a helical tension spring. An inner end of the spring is connected to the barrel core and its outer end connected to the spring barrel. A crown wheel with a toothed ring is fixed to the spring barrel and a first wheel of a wheel train of the timepiece is fixed to the barrel core. The circular cutout is formed through the plate-like component and the spring barrel has two supporting regions which extend radially beyond the diameter of the circular cutout and are each in abutment against one of the mutually opposite side surfaces of the plate-like component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2008
    Assignee: Lange Uhren GmbH
    Inventor: Jens Schneider
  • Patent number: 7316504
    Abstract: The invention concerns a timepiece with mainspring of the so-called fly tourbillon type, the tourbillon having a balance bridge (2) forming a cage with a collet (1) and a single protruding ball bearing (5) supporting said so-called fly tourbillon assembly. Said so-called fly tourbillon assembly is visible on the dial side (15) and is designed as an independent tourbillon module. Said tourbillon module is separable from the clockwork (13) by being detached on the rear side of the clockwork (13) and by being removed on that same side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2008
    Assignee: Watch-U-License AG
    Inventors: Elmar Mock, Begona Guerry, Elio Mariotto
  • Patent number: 7307918
    Abstract: A driving mechanism for radio-controlled clocks includes a gear having a pre-decided point and a permanent magnet including an N pole and an S pole is secured to the gear. An angle clamped between a line connecting the pre-decided point and a center of the gear and another line connecting the N pole and S pole is fixed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2007
    Assignee: Ele Gancy Tleleancy Co., Ltd
    Inventor: Tsai-Te Liu
  • Patent number: 7306364
    Abstract: There is disclosed a wristwatch having a case containing a mechanical watch movement (10) driven by a spring barrel (14) and provided with a mechanical regulator with a balance and balance-spring, which is associated, via electromagnetic coupling, with an electronic regulator driven by a quartz resonator. The rim of the balance (13) is provided with a pair of permanent magnets (38, 39). The electronic regulator includes a fixed coil (12) arranged for cooperating with said magnets via electromagnetic coupling, a rectifier (58) provided with at least one capacitor, and a circuit (60) for enslaving the frequency of the mechanical regulator to the frequency of the oscillator by braking obtained by briefly short-circuiting the coil. In order to enable a common type of mechanical movement to be used, only the balance of which is altered, the electronic regulator is formed by a structural module (11) that is entirely separate from the mechanical watch movement (10).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2007
    Assignee: Asulab S.A.
    Inventors: Jean-Jacques Born, Pierre-Andre Farine