Improvements in Watch Cases.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 29th Oct., 1895-Accepted, 30th Nov., 1895
Improvements in Watch Cases.
I, THEODORE BALDWIN WILCOX, of 355 Mulberry Street, Newark ir. the
County of Essex and State of New Jersey, United States of America, Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The various attempts which have been made to produce a watch case of good
appearance, substantial purity, and reasonable cost have proved, for the most
part, abortive, by reason of the fact that purchasers object to the idea of a case
which is made impure either by the circumstance that a piece of brass, or other
base material, forms the bulk of the case, or that the case is made up of several
pieces of one or the other of the noble metals in different degrees of purity. The
preference always is for a metal of substantially uniform purity, even though the
case be made as thin as it can be and still resist ordinary pressure and wear. In
other words, the various styles of plating, filling, double stock arrangements, and
so on, in which an inferior quality of metal, or a solder or some base material, is
used as a part of the case, present something which customers do not like and
which it would be very desirable to do away with. On the other hand, the well-
known softness of fine gold and, to a degree also, of pure silver has hitherto made
it necessary to construct good watch cases of such thickness of metal as to make
them cost more than men of ordinary means can afford to pay.
The invention which I have made relates to means for making watch cases of,
say, 18 carat gold, stiff enough, even at small thicknesses to do the work required
of them. I mention gold cases in particular, but it will be understood that my
invention can be applied to silver cases as well. I accomplish the object aimed at
by supplying such watch cases with ribs upon the inside, preferably radiating from
the center or from a circular rib surrounding the center, the ribs, whether circular
or radial, being calculated to form trusses, so to speak, or means of resistance
to the collapse of the case. The ribs thus formed on or added to the inside of
a watch case will give to the said case a rigidity which will be practically the
same as if the whole case were made of the same thickness that it has at the ribs.
At the same time the case as a whole can be made quite thin, and a considerable
saving of precious metal can thus be effected. By putting the ribs upon the inside
of the case, the beauty of the exterior of the case is not defaced, and a light
watch case of small cost and fine appearance is produced. In order to gain the
advantage of an important saving of metal, I find that I need to place the ribs
farther apart than the width of one of the said ribs at the base. Otherwise too
much metal will be put into the ribs themselves.
Ribs of this sort can be made in separate pieces and soldered to the case, but I
prefer to form the ribs in one piece with the case by means of dies (not here-
with shown) which are brought together under great pressure, sufficient to upset
the metal, or force it into grooves in the dies. The metal between the ribs
may be
comparatively thin and still, owing to the presence of the ribs, the case may resist
ordinary pressure and meet the requirements of ordinary service in the way of
wearing qualities. In fact, cases of this sort are adapted to last quite as well
as much heavier cases, and they have the advantage of being cheaper, and that,
too, without any sacrifice of genuineness. They thus meet the wants of the
average purchaser and user of watches and embody qualities of cheapness, lightness,
and purity which have long been sought for without success.

page_text: I have illustrated my invention in the accompanying drawing, in which
Fig. 1 is an elevation of the face of a hunting case watch with the case
opened out;
Figs. 2, 3, and 4 show the interior of watch cases with different arrangements of
the strengthening ribs;
Fig. 5 is a section of a watch case showing the presence of ribs on the interior of
the watch case; and
Fig. 6 is a sertion of a made-up case, one part of which is strengthened as per
my invention.
In the drawings I have exaggerated the thickness of the ribs, for the sake of
clearness of illustration. Referring to the drawings by letter, A is a hunting, oase
watch and B is the case adapted to cover the face thereof. The case is made of
fine gold or of silver approximately pure. The greater portion of the case is so
thin that it would not ordinarily resist the pressure to which it is liable to be sub-
jected; I mean that it would not be certain to resist such pressure, if the whole
case were of uniform thickness equal to the thickness of the greater part of it.
I form, however, preferably upon the inner side of the case, a series of ribs,
extending in the form illustrated in Fig. 1, from the center to the edges of the case.
The ribs are marked b, b, and they are raised above the greater part of the surface.
Now these ribs strengthen the case to such a degree that a case otherwise too thin
for ordinary use can be used without danger of collapse either by edgewise pressure
or by pressure at the center of the case from the outside.
The other figures show other arrangements of ribs, some of them being. circular
as shown at c.
My invention has no reference whatever to the development of a new design or
pattern for watch cases, but it is concerned with the matter of securing genuineness
of material combined with adequate strength and with such cheapness as will
recommend the case to purchasers. When this recommendation of cheapness is
combined with the assurance of the genuine quality of the metal employed, the
value of my invention will be very easily understood.
In Fig. 6 I illustrate how one might take advantage of the principle herein
involved in order to make a built-up case. Here the outer or inner case (it doesn't
matter which) is provided with ribs 6, 4, upon which the other part of the case as
a whole rests, or there might be a rib or ribs on both parts of such a built-up case.
However that may be, the part of the case having ribs would, in fact, correspond
to what I have called, in the claims which follow, a watch ense.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of iny said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, 1 declare that what I
claim is:-
1. A watch case provided with internal rib, substantially as and for the purpose
hereinbefore described and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.
2. A watch case provided with internal ribs separated by spaces greater than
the widths of the ribs, substantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore described
and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.
3. A watch case provided with internal ribs radiating from a central circolar
rib, substantially as and for the purpose herein before described and as illustrated
by the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 28th day of October 1895.
W. E. HEYS & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.