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JP-7857426-B2 - Speed regulator for watch movements

JP7857426B2JP 7857426 B2JP7857426 B2JP 7857426B2JP-7857426-B2

Inventors

  • モジョン・ジャン－フランソワ
  • クレマン・グザヴィエ
  • ドルドル・セバスチャン

Assignees

  • クロノード・ソシエテ・アノニム

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20230502
Priority Date
20220503

Claims (20)

  1. An oscillator (22) comprising the first and second balances, wherein each of the first and second balances is equipped with an inertia gear (24a, 24b) and a balance staff (34a, 34b), The vibrator (22) comprises at least one elastic member (32, 32a, 32b) for maintaining its vibration, and the vibrator (22) further comprises a gear train (40) having at least two movable parts (42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49), wherein the movable parts of the gear train are separate components from the inertia gears (24a, 24b) of the first balance wheel and the second balance wheel, respectively. The inertia gears (24a, 24b) of each balance are rotatably fixed to the movable parts (42, 44) of the gear train (40), A speed regulator (20) for a clock movement (10) is provided, wherein the gear train (40) is arranged so as to connect the inertia gears (24a, 24b) of the first balance wheel and the second balance wheel to each other by desmodromic coupling, so that the vibrations of the first balance wheel and the second balance wheel are in opposite phases, An escapement (15) comprising at least one escape wheel (16, 16a, 16b), wherein the escapement (15) further comprises at least one anchor (17, 17a, 17b) intended to control at least one escape wheel (16, 16a, 16b) and to maintain the vibration of the oscillator (22), the governor (20) further comprises the escapement (15), A speed regulator (20) for a clock movement (10).
  2. A governor (20) according to claim 1, comprising at least three balance wheels, each balance wheel comprising an inertia gear (24a, 24b, 24c), wherein the phases of vibration of two balance wheels that follow each other in the kinetic chain (CC) of the at least three balance wheels are in opposite directions.
  3. The governor (20) according to claim 1, wherein the gear train (40) comprises two or more movable parts (42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49).
  4. The governor (20) according to claim 1, wherein the balance axes (34a, 34b) of the first and second balances are coaxial.
  5. The governor (20) according to claim 1, wherein the balance axes (34a, 34b) of the first and second balances are parallel, and the respective inertia gears (24a, 24b) are arranged to vibrate in two parallel planes.
  6. The governor (20) according to claim 1, wherein the inertia gears (24a, 24b) of the first and second balances are on the same plane.
  7. The governor (20) according to claim 1, wherein the balance axes (34a, 34b) of the first and second balances are contained within an intersecting plane.
  8. The governor (20) according to claim 6, wherein the inertia gears (24a, 24b) of the first and second balances are provided with a plurality of unconnected edge pieces (28a, 28b) , and these edge pieces are joined together to form the edges of each inertia gear (24a, 24b) along their respective circles (25a, 25b), and the circles intersect or overlap to define a first disc and a second disc (27a, 27b) that form an overlapping area (29a) or an intersection area (29b).
  9. The speed governor (20) according to claim 8, wherein the overlapping area is in the shape of a lens (29a).
  10. The governor (20) according to claim 8, wherein the intersection area is a straight line segment (29b).
  11. The governor (20) according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second balances does not include the at least one elastic member.
  12. The governor (20) according to claim 1, wherein at least one elastic member (32) is attached to an intermediate movable part (45, 46, 47, 48, 49) of the gear train (40), and the inertia of the intermediate movable part (45, 46, 47, 48, 49) is at least five times smaller than the inertia of any of the aforementioned balances.
  13. The governor (20) according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the first balance wheel and the second balance wheel, and one or both of the intermediate movable parts (45, 46, 47, 48, 49) of the gear train (40), are provided with an even number of elastic members wound in opposite directions.
  14. The governor (20) according to claim 1, wherein the escapement (15) comprises only one anchor (17) provided to cooperate with one of the first balance wheel, the second balance wheel, and the escape wheel (16).
  15. The escapement mechanism (15) On the one hand, in cooperation with the first tempo and the second tempo, On the other hand, the governor (20) according to claim 1 comprises a single escape wheel (16) or two anchors (17a, 17b) provided to cooperate with a first escape wheel and a second escape wheel (16a, 16b), respectively.
  16. The escapement mechanism (15) A first half anchor (18a) is provided to cooperate with the first temp and is equipped with a first pallet (180a), A second half-anchor (18b ) is provided to cooperate with the second temp, and is equipped with a second pallet (180b ) Equipped with, The first half-anchor and the second half-anchor are arranged to cooperate with a single escape wheel (16), or The first half-anchor is provided to cooperate with the first escape wheel (16a), and the second half-anchor is provided to cooperate with the second escape wheel (16b). The governor (20) according to claim 1.
  17. The governor (20) according to claim 1, wherein the escapement (15) comprises an anchor (17) provided to cooperate with one of the first balance wheel and the second balance wheel, and the anchor comprises a first pallet provided to cooperate with the first escape wheel (16a) and a second pallet provided to cooperate with the second escape wheel (16b).
  18. The governor (20) according to claim 1, wherein the escapement (15) comprises an anchor (17) provided to cooperate with the intermediate movable parts (45, 46, 47, 48, 49) of the gear train (40) and the escape wheel (16).
  19. A method for adjusting the vibration frequency of the oscillator (22) of the speed governor (20) according to claim 1, The inertia of all the balances (24a, 24b, 34a, 34b) of the vibrator (22) and the return torque of at least one of the elastic members (32, 32a, 32b) of the vibrator are determined. Then, at least one of the movable parts (42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49) of the gear train (40) is replaced with a movable part of a different inertia to obtain a ratio between the inertia of all the balances and the return torque of the at least one elastic member defined by the desired frequency of the vibrator (22). A method for adjusting the vibration frequency of the oscillator (22) of the speed governor (20).
  20. A method for adjusting the vibration frequency of an oscillator (22) of a speed governor (20) according to claim 1, wherein the inertia of all the balances (24a, 24b, 34a, 34b) of the oscillator (22) and the return torque of at least one elastic member are determined. Then, by replacing at least one of the movable parts (42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49) of the gear train (40) with a movable part having a different pitch diameter from the movable part to be replaced, a ratio is obtained between the inertia of all the balances of the vibrator and the return torque of the at least one elastic member (32, 32a, 32b) defined by the desired frequency of the vibrator. A method for adjusting the vibration frequency of the oscillator (22) of the speed governor (20).

Description

This invention relates to a regulator for a clock movement. The invention also relates to a clock movement equipped with a regulator, and a time-indicating device equipped with such a movement. Generally, mechanical watches contain a movement in which the regulating oscillator can be varied between 3 Hz and 5 Hz. While this is a general statement, the oscillator can exceed 5 Hz to achieve higher accuracy. In other words, a lower frequency regulating oscillator offers several advantages, including increased power reserve (the time the watch runs from a fully wound state until it completely unwinds and stops) and a simpler movement. Low-frequency governors are known in the relevant technical field. For example, the escapement disclosed in Patent Document 1 has a reversing gear that is designed to apply an impact to the balance wheel via a gear in order to reduce the balance wheel's vibration frequency so that the balance wheel vibrates at a frequency of 0.5 Hz. To maintain an acceptable quality factor for the oscillator of a low-frequency governor, the inertia of the balance wheel must be increased compared to mechanical movements with higher-frequency oscillators. This increase in inertia has the main disadvantage of increasing sensitivity to angular acceleration. Swiss Patent No. 75063European Patent Application Publication No. 2923242 Figure 1 is a schematic top view of a simplified clock movement according to one embodiment of the present invention.Figure 2 is a perspective view of an oscillator equipped with two balance springs, driven together by a desmodromic gear train according to one embodiment of the present invention.Figure 3 is a top view of Figure 2.Figure 4 is a diagram similar to Figure 3, but without the hairspring.Figure 5 is a side view of Figure 2.Figure 6 is a perspective view showing an oscillator according to another embodiment of the present invention.Figure 7 is a top view of Figure 6.Figure 8 is a side view of Figure 6.Figure 9 is a perspective view of a governor having two balance springs driven together by a desmodromic gear train according to another embodiment of the present invention.Figure 10 is a side view of Figure 9.Figure 11 is a schematic top view of a speed governor according to one embodiment.Figure 12 is a schematic top view of a governor according to another embodiment.Figure 13 is a schematic top view of a governor according to another embodiment.Figure 14 is a schematic top view of a governor according to another embodiment.Figure 15 is a schematic top view of a governor according to another embodiment.Figure 16 is a schematic top view of a governor according to another embodiment.Figure 17 is a schematic top view of a governor according to another embodiment.Figure 18 is a schematic top view of a governor according to another embodiment.Figure 19 is a schematic top view of a governor according to another embodiment.Figure 20 is a schematic top view of a governor according to another embodiment.Figure 21 is a schematic top view of a governor according to another embodiment.Figure 22 is a schematic top view of a governor according to another embodiment.Figure 23 is a schematic top view of a governor according to another embodiment.Figure 24 is a schematic top view of a governor according to another embodiment.Figure 25a is a top view of the escapement of the governor shown in Figure 12, according to another embodiment.Figure 25b is a top view of the escapement of the governor shown in Figure 12, according to another embodiment.Figure 25c is a top view of the escapement of the governor shown in Figure 12, according to another embodiment.Figure 25d shows the contact point between the pallet of one of the anchors in Figure 25c and the teeth of the escape wheel.Figure 26 is a top view of the governor shown in Figure 17.Figure 27 is a schematic top view of an oscillator according to another embodiment.Figure 28 is a schematic top view of an oscillator showing the overlapping region between two points according to another embodiment.Figure 29 is a schematic top view of an oscillator showing the overlapping region between two points according to another embodiment.Figure 30 is a schematic diagram of an oscillator showing two crossover regions between three points according to another embodiment. In this specification, "oscillator" is understood to mean an oscillator comprising multiple balance wheels, and on the other hand, a gear train arranged such that the balance wheels are interdependent and mesh with each other. Furthermore, in this specification, "governor" is understood to mean an assembly comprising an oscillator and a counter, particularly an escapement. Referring to Figure 1, the watch movement 10 has a simplified structure thanks to a low-frequency regulator with two balance springs 22a and 22b, described later, configured to oscillate at a frequency of less than 1.5 Hz. Depending on the inertia of the selected balance springs, the power reserve can be significan