US-12619199-B2 - Case and timepiece

US12619199B2US 12619199 B2US12619199 B2US 12619199B2US-12619199-B2

Abstract

A case including a device case, and an exterior member which is attached covering an outer circumferential surface of an upper part of the device case, in which the device case has a catching portion formed in an outer circumferential portion thereof, the exterior member has an engaging portion which is formed on an inner side portion thereof, engages with the catching portion when the exterior member is attached to the device case, and prevents the exterior member from being detached from the device case, and a support area which supports the engaging portion of the exterior member is formed of a material whose hardness is lower than hardness of a material of an area adjacent to the support area.

Inventors

Takumi YASUDA

Assignees

CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20231019
Priority Date: 20221130

Claims (17)

1 . A case comprising: a device case; and an exterior member which is attached covering an outer circumferential surface of an upper part of the device case, wherein the device case has a catching portion formed in an outer circumferential portion thereof, wherein the exterior member has an engaging portion which is formed on an inner side portion thereof, engages with the catching portion when the exterior member is attached to the device case, and prevents the exterior member from being detached from the device case, wherein a support area which supports the engaging portion of the exterior member is formed of a material whose hardness is lower than hardness of a material of an area adjacent to the support area, and wherein the exterior member includes the support area and the area adjacent to the support area, which are formed as an integrated member.
2 . The case according to claim 1 , wherein areas other than the support area of the exterior member are formed of a material whose hardness is higher than the hardness of the material of the support area.
3 . The case according to claim 1 , wherein an upper side portion of the exterior member is formed of a material whose hardness is lower than the hardness of the material of the area adjacent to the support area of the exterior member.
4 . The case according to claim 3 , wherein the hardness of the material of the upper side portion of the exterior member is equal to the hardness of the material of the support area.
5 . The case according to claim 1 , wherein the support area which supports the engaging portion of the exterior member possesses elasticity by which the engaging portion is moved from a position where the engaging portion is out of the catching portion to a position where the engaging portion is engaged with the catching portion along with shape recovery of the support area.
6 . The case according to claim 1 , wherein the catching portion is plurally formed in two symmetrical portions of an outer circumferential part of the device case located across a center of an upper part of the device case from each other, and wherein the engaging portion of the exterior member is plurally formed on two inner side portions of the exterior member corresponding to the catching portions.
7 . The case according to claim 1 , wherein an operation member projects from an outer circumferential surface of the device case, and the catching portion is formed at a position shifted in a circumferential direction from a position of the operation member on the outer circumferential surface, and wherein the exterior member attached to the device case covers the outer circumferential surface of the upper part of the device case while avoiding the operation member.
8 . The case according to claim 1 , wherein the exterior member is integrally formed by a first area including a first material and a second area including a second material whose hardness is higher than a hardness of the first material.
9 . The case according to claim 1 , wherein the support area of the exterior member and an area of the exterior member other than the support area differ from each other in color.
10 . The case according to claim 1 , wherein the catching portion of the device case forms a recess portion in an outer surface of an outer circumferential part of the device case, and wherein the engaging portion of the exterior member forms a projection portion which projects from an inner surface of the exterior member and is fitted into the catching portion from an outer circumference side of the device case.
11 . The case according to claim 10 , wherein an upper surface of the engaging portion of the exterior member is provided with a projecting ridge which extends from a base end of the engaging portion toward a leading end thereof and comes in pressure contact with an upper surface of an inner side of the catching portion of the device case when the engaging portion is fitted into the catching portion.
12 . The case according to claim 10 , wherein the projection portion formed by the engaging portion of the exterior member is a hollow projection which is open in a projecting direction and a downward direction.
13 . The case according to claim 1 , wherein the device case includes a case main body and a fixed exterior member which is harder than the support area of the exterior member, provided with the catching portion, and fixed on an upper part of the case main body, and wherein the exterior member is attached to the device case while covering an outer circumferential surface of an upper part of the fixed exterior member.
14 . A timepiece comprising: the case according to claim 1 ; a pointer; and a movement which moves the pointer to indicate clock time.
15 . The case according to claim 1 , wherein the exterior member includes an attachment operation section that is integrally formed with the exterior member and that is provided at an outer circumferential portion of the exterior member, and wherein the attachment operation section includes the engaging portion.
16 . The case according to claim 15 , wherein the attachment operation section includes (i) the support area, which is provided adjacent to the engaging portion and supports the engaging portion, and (ii) side sections adjacent to the support area, the support area being interposed between the engaging portion and the side sections.
17 . The case according to claim 16 , wherein a hardness of a material of the support area is lower than a hardness of a material of the side sections.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-192481, filed Nov. 30, 2022, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a case that is used for electronic devices such as wristwatches, and a timepiece having the case. 2. Description of the Related Art For example, a wristwatch is known which has a structure where an exterior member is interchangeably attached to a case, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) Publication No. H11-044775. In this structure, the exterior member includes a decorative section with decoration and fitting sections provided on peripheral edges of the decorative section so as to be arranged on the peripheral surface of the case. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One embodiment of the present invention is a case comprising: a device case; and an exterior member which is attached covering an outer circumferential surface of an upper part of the device case, wherein the device case has a catching portion formed in an outer circumferential portion thereof, wherein the exterior member has an engaging portion which is formed on an inner side portion thereof, engages with the catching portion when the exterior member is attached to the device case, and prevents the exterior member from being detached from the device case, and wherein a support area which supports the engaging portion of the exterior member is formed of a material whose hardness is lower than hardness of a material of an area adjacent to the support area. The above and further objects and novel features of the present invention will more fully appear from the following detailed description when the same is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawings are for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment in which the present invention has been applied in a wristwatch; FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the wristwatch shown in FIG. 1, in which an exterior member has been detached therefrom; FIG. 3 is a front view of the wristwatch shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 4 is a left side view of the wristwatch shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the wristwatch taken along the A-A arrow view in FIG. 3; FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main portion shown in FIG. 5; FIG. 7A is a partial cross-sectional view of the wristwatch taken along the B-B arrow view in FIG. 5; FIG. 7B is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing a relation between an fixed exterior member and an engaging section of the exterior member shown in FIG. 7A; FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the exterior member; and FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing the engaging section of the exterior member and a support area. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment in which the present invention has been applied in a wristwatch will hereinafter be described with reference to FIG. 1 to FIG. 9. Note that, although the embodiment described below is provided, with various technically preferable limitations in order to carry out the present invention, these limitations are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention to the embodiment and an example shown in the drawings. This wristwatch has a wristwatch case 1, as shown in FIG. 1. On outer circumferential portions of the wristwatch case 1 on the twelve o'clock side and the six o'clock side, band attachment sections 2 to which watch bands 51 are attached are provided. In addition, on outer circumferential portions of the wristwatch case 1 on the two o'clock side, the four o'clock side, the eight o'clock side, and the ten o'clock side, push button switches 3 are provided, as shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. 4. These push button switches 3 project from the outer circumferential surface of the wristwatch case 1, and are used for selecting and performing various types of functions such as a time correction function and a display function. The wristwatch case 1 includes a device case 4 provided with the above-described push button switches 3, and an exterior member 5 which is attached to the upper part of the device case 4 while covering the upper surface thereof and the upper outer circumferential surface (the outer circumferential surface of the upper part) thereof and can be detached when necessary, as shown in FIG. 2, In two outer circumferential portions of the device case 4 on the three o'clock side and the nine o'clock side, later-described catching sections 21 for locking the exterior member 5 are formed. The device case 4 includes a case main body 6 whose inner part is open in upward and downward directions, as shown in FIG. 5. The case main body 6 is made of metal s