Portable Watch, Especially Wristwatch

The invention relates to a portable watch, especially a wristwatch, provided with a compass.

With a known watch of the type mentioned at the outset (DT-AS 1 085 101), the compass and the watch is placed in a single housing. The compass needle is thereby supported on a pin above the hand support shaft of the watch. This arrangement has the disadvantage that the exact reading of the two instruments is made difficult as a result of the superimposition of the watch hand and the compass needle.

It is an object of the invention to provide a portable watch with a compass in which the mentioned disadvantage is avoided. In preferred embodiments, auxiliary systems such as mirror, sighting device or the like for the operation of the compass are also favorably arranged.

According to an important feature of the invention, the above-noted problems of the prior arrangement are solved by providing that the watch and the compass are accommodated in separate housings arranged one above the other whereby the upper housing is adjustable in relation to the lower housing. In the most preferred embodiments, the watch is advantageously provided in the upper housing and the compass in the lower housing. In such preferred embodiments, the upper housing is adjustably movable with respect to the lower housing about a hinge-joint. The pivot or swinging axle of the hinge-joint extends essentially in the longitudinal direction of the arm of the person wearing the watch. At the side of the upper housing which faces the lower housing, a mirror for the control and reading of the compass needle and compass scale is provided. A sighting device for aligning the compass needle is provided which consists of a sight and notch provided at the lower housing. Further, a measuring scale is provided at the lower housing in certain preferred embodiments. The two housings are preferably held in their folded positions by means of a clamp lock.

The advantages, especially obtained with the invention are seen therein, that each instrument is readable and operable by itself without interference from the other. The arrangement of the housing with the compass below and the watch above was selected for the reason that the watch is quite likely to be utilized much more often than the compass. The hinge-joint accommodates a simple fold-open movement of the watch which leads to an easy access to the compass. In addition, by the arrangement, in preferred embodiments, of a mirror and the sighting device at the upper housing, all auxiliary systems, required for the operation of the compass, are attached.

These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, several embodiments in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wristwatch with compass constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view corresponding to FIG. 1, however with the wristwatch turned by 180.degree. and with the watch housing opened to accommodate reading of the compass;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1, but showing another preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged schematic view, taken in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 1, showing details of a mechanism for holding the upper and lower housing in a predetermined position; and

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line V--V of FIG. 4.

The watch 1 is constructed so that it can be worn on the human wrist and comprises an armband 2 (shown partially) as well as two housings 3 and 4 arranged one above the other. A watch works, not shown in detail, is provided in the upper housing 3 and has watch hands 5, 6, 7. Hands 5, 6, 7 are covered by a crystal or pane 8. The lower housing receives a compass 9 provided with a compass needle 10 and a scale 11. The compass needle 10 is also covered by a crystal or pane 12.

The upper housing 3 is constructed adjustable in relation to the lower housing 4 by means of a hinge-joint 13. The hinge-joint 13, the hinge axis of which extends essentially parallel to the arm of the person wearing the watch, is provided with self-locking means of such construction that the upper housing 3 remains in a selected position, for example, position A in FIG. 2. FIGS. 4 and 5 show such a self-locking means with enlargement detents 21 of rotating part 20 of hinge 13, which detents 21, in dependence on the positions A or B, cooperate with detents 22, 23 on fixed part 24 to hold the parts in relative rotative positions. In addition, a clasp-lock is preferably provided between the two housings 3 and 4 which counteracts an undesired opening of the upper housing 3, thereby retaining housing 3 in its locked position B of FIG. 1.

A mirror 14 is provided on the side of the upper housing 3 facing the lower housing 4, which mirror serves for the control (reading) of compass needle 9 and compass scale 10.

In addition, the compass 8 is provided with a sighting device formed by a gun sight 15 at the lower housing 4 and a notch 16 at the upper housing 3. The gun sight 15 may be further developed for example, to form a clasp lock for locking the housings in the closed position.

According to FIG. 3, a straight-extending wall section 18 is provided at the lower housing 17 with a measuring range scale 19. Since other features of this FIG. 3 embodiment are similar to those described above for the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2, such other features are not illustrated and described.

While we have shown and described various embodiments in accordance with the present invention, it is understood that the same is not limited thereto but is susceptible of numerous changes and modifications as known to those skilled in the art and we therefore do not wish to be limited to the details shown and described herein but intend to cover all such changes and modifications as are encompassed by the scope of the appended claims.