AN IMPROVED WATCH KEY OR WINDER
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Brown at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 20th April 1878. A communication from
abroad by Frank Clifford Dennis, of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of
America.
THOMAS BROWN, of Rood Lane, in the City of London, Engineer. "AN IMPROVED
WATCH KEY OR WINDER." [A communication from abroad by Frank Clifford
Dennis, of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.]
is
The said Invention relates to a novel and improved key or winder for watches,
and is designed to obviate the inconvenience attending the use of ordinary watch
keys, without the cost of the complicated mechanism necessary for the construction
of the so-called keyless watches. These keyless watches are provided with a stem
or spindle, which is geared by toothed wheels with the barrel, and has outside the
watch case a knob or button, which is turned to wind the watch. This mechanism
very complicated, adds considerably to the cost of the watch, and necessitates
special provision in the construction of the same for its application, so that it could
not be applied to an ordinary watch. Other devices have also been suggested for
the same purposes, but they have all of them been more or less complicated and
expensive or otherwise objectionable; but according to the present Invention I
provide a key or winder which may be applied to an ordinary watch without
requiring any alteration in the case or other parts of the same, and which, when
fitted in place, is entirely within the case, so that no part of it is exposed to injury
or derangement, and which, when once applied to the watch, need never be dis-
connected or removed therefrom, except for repairing or cleaning. Therefore this
improved key or winder is free from the inconveniences of ordinary loose keys,
while not adding to the cost of the watch, and affording all the advantages of the
more costly and complicated devices heretofore employed, as above specified.
The said improved key or winder is constructed and applied to a watch as
follows, that is to say:--It has a small boss or hub, in which is formed a square
hole or socket of any required size to fit the spindle of the watch. From this boss
or hub extends an arm formed of very thin metal, and properly shaped to lie
between the inner and outer cases of the watch when placed therein. The said boss
also has projecting from it a small tongue or lip, which is designed to pass through
Price 911

page_text: the keyhole, and project under the inner case when the said socket is fitted on the
spindle, and thereby keep the key in place. When thus fitted to the watch the
said key may be easily turned by applying the finger to the long arm of the said
key; and the watch may be opened and closed and worn without removing the
said key from its place, as above described.
I prefer that the said key or winder should be formed of steel, and tempered to
render the said arm elastic.
In some instances I provide the extremity of the long arm of the key with a small
piece of silk or leather or other soft material to prevent scratching of the cases
thereby in winding the watch.
It is obvious that this Invention may be readily adapted not only to new watches
but to watches in use, and which have heretofore been wound by a loose key in
the ordinary manner.