Patent ID: 9116508
Filing Date: 2015-08-25
Classification: G04B,G04C,G04G

Abstract:
1. An analog electronic timepiece, comprising: a magnetic field measurement unit which measures the Earth's magnetic field; a time counting unit; a plurality of hands which are arranged so as to be rotatable; a hand control unit which controls rotation of the plurality of hands by activating a stepping motor; and a timing control unit which performs control such that a period of time for executing the rotation of the hands by the hand control unit does not overlap with a period of time for measuring the Earth's magnetic field by the magnetic field measurement unit, wherein: at least one hand of the plurality of hands is an independent drive hand(s) which is rotatable independently from other hand(s) by the hand control unit, the hand control unit performs control such that at least one of the independent drive hand(s) indicates a predetermined direction based on data measured by the magnetic field measurement unit, and such that other hand(s) among the plurality of hands, which are time hand(s), indicate a current time at a predetermined time interval, the current time being counted by the time counting unit, when the current time becomes a timing for performing a movement operation of the time hand(s) to indicate a change in time while the measurement of the magnetic field is being performed, in a case in which the time hand(s) includes a hand for which the predetermined time interval is less than a predetermined setting time, the timing control unit interrupts the measurement of the magnetic field and performs the movement operation of the time hand(s), and in a case in which the time hand(s) does not include the hand for which the predetermined time interval is less than the predetermined setting time, the movement operation of the time hand(s) is postponed until the measurement of the magnetic field is finished.