IMPROVEMENTS IN WATCHES A com
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frank Wirth at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 8th November 1882. A communication
from Gustav Speckhart, a person resident at Nürnberg in the Empire of
Germany.
FRANK WIRTH, of the firm of Wirth and Company, Patent Solicitors, at Frankfort
on the Main in the Empire of Germany IMPROVEMENTS IN WATCHES A com-
munication from Gustav Speckhart a person resident at Nürnberg in the Empire
of Germany.
The said invention relates to watches, and is designed to effect the winding up
of the main spring and any desired adjustment of the watch hands without the use
of a key or the opening of the case, thereby also rendering the case much simpler
and cheaper in construction.
I effect this by the use of sliding push or pull buttons or knobs, inserted
through the central circumference of the case and communicating with the main
spring arbor or axis, and with the arbor or axis of the hands by suitable mechanism
as hereinafter more fully described.
First to effect the winding up of the main spring.
A push knob through the exterior case is connected by a link with a lever,
which is free to move on the arbor or axis of the main spring case.
To a square
on this same axis is fixed an ordinary ratchet wheel with teeth arranged so as
to gear with a pawl on the before described lever, in the proper direction for
winding up.
The pawl is kept in contact with the said ratchet teeth by a suitable spring, and
a second fixed pawl and spring also engages into the ratchet wheel to check and
hold it after a stroke by the described rocking lever.
A spring also presses against a projecting end of the rocking lever, so as to bring
it back into its former position after a stroke from the push knob.
The movement of the rocking lever actuated by the push knob and its recoil by
the spring, effect, with the checking action of the second pawl, the winding up of
the main spring.
A second koob placed by preference on the other side of the ring attachment and
|actuated by a pull operates the hand mechanism,

page_text: In this case the pull knob is provided with a ratchet hook at its inner end,
which gears direct into the teeth of a ratchet wheel, keyed to the arbor or axis of
the hand mechanism. This pull is provided with a slot working over two set-
screws so as to be guided in its travel. It is raised by a pull to turn the hand
mechanism, and is pressed back into its former position after the stroke by a
re-acting spring.
This system of sliding pull and spring recoil may be used alternatively to the
before described push knob, to effect the winding up of the main spring.
Alternatively a double push arrangement with two knobs projecting from
opposite sides of the case may be used to actuate the hand mechanism as it can be
adapted to rotate the hands in opposite directions as desired.
To the two knobs is attached a sliding carriage to which are fixed two spring
pawls, one on each side of the wheel, to operate the watch hands. This wheel is
provided with square ratchet teeth, so that either spring pawl will engage into the
wheel according to the direction in which the sliding piece is pushed. The pawl,
in rotating the wheel, passes under it, and then slides back freely over the teeth.
Two springs are used to press the sliding piece back into its original position, after
movement from either side.
Owing to absence in this arrangement of any necessity for opening the cases
either to wind up the watch or to adjust the hands, the case may be fitted, stamped,
spun or pressed together in suitable parts, without the introduction of hinged glass
-ring-and-back cover-as-at-present..
The case may alternatively be made either of the central ring and glass groove
in one piece with a separate back cover; or the back cover and central ring in one
piece with a separate glass groove or the central ring, the back cover, and the glass
-groove, all in separate pieces, which may be fitted,..stamped, spun or pressed
together, in any known manner. The ring attachinent-may-be-rivetted, soldered, or
otherwise conveniently attached, to the central-ring-caso.-