Rotating Cover-Bezel for Concealing Off-Centre Watch Displays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing watchcase mechanisms for concealing or revealing timepiece displays are either complex and expensive, fragile, or limited to specific shapes and prone to dirt accumulation, making them difficult to handle and maintain.
Innovation Solution
A watchcase with a rotating cover-bezel mounted on a central axis, allowing easy rotation to reveal or conceal off-centre analogue or digital displays, maintaining aesthetic appeal and protection without the need for complex mechanisms or specific shapes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a reversible watch mechanism is used to conceal the display, then the display can be protected and aesthetic purposes are achieved, but the mechanism becomes complex and expensive with hinged arms, pivots, and slide-bars
Solution Approach 1:
The cover-bezel is segmented from the case structure, allowing it to rotate independently on a central axis. This segmentation simplifies the overall mechanism by eliminating the need for complex hinged arms, pivots, and slide-bars required in reversible watch mechanisms, while still achieving display concealment through rotational movement.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of moving the entire case or dial to conceal the display (as in reversible watches), the invention inverts the approach by keeping the case stationary and rotating only the cover-bezel with the aperture. This inversion dramatically reduces mechanism complexity while maintaining the concealment function.
2Device complexity
If shutters sliding in rectilinear grooves are used to conceal the display, then the mechanism is simpler than reversible watches, but the watchcase is limited to rectangular shapes and dirt accumulates in the slideways
Solution Approach 1:
The cover-bezel rotates on a central axis in a circular path, replacing the rectilinear sliding motion with curved rotational motion. This eliminates the need for grooves and slideways where dirt accumulates, while allowing the watchcase to adopt various shapes including circular forms that would be impossible with rectangular shutter mechanisms.
3Device complexity
If a cover mobile in rotation is used to conceal the display, then the mechanism is simple, but it cannot be manoeuvred from outside the watch requiring a complex mechanical drive system
Solution Approach 1:
The cover-bezel serves multiple functions: it acts as both a protective element and a manual control interface. The aperture in the cover-bezel can be positioned to reveal or conceal the display, and the same rotational mechanism can be operated from outside the watch, eliminating the need for separate complex drive systems while maintaining simplicity.
Data Source
AI summary
The watchcase includes a middle part (3) closed by a back cover (5) delimiting a housing (7) provided for receiving a watch movement (9) including at least one off-centre display (10, 12). The external surface is entirely covered by a cover-bezel (1) rotatably mounted in the plane of the case on an axis (15) located at the centre of the case and it includes at least one aperture (20) having the same contour as the display (10, 12) and able to occupy a first position in which said display (10, 12) is visible, and another position in which said display (10, 12) is concealed.