The mechanics involved in devices which measure the passage of time are, even in the simplest of forms, fairly complex. For analog timepieces (having at least two hands moving about a stationary face), a generally accepted form of moving the hands about the face to indicate time has evolved to a standard. The standard includes rotating both hands about a center-point of the face at two different rates, a minutes hand at a minutes rate and an hours hand at an hours rate. Until recently, very few analog timepieces strayed from this standard of using the analog hands to indicate time, and of these few most were clocks.
Some variations of the standard timepieces involved the introduction of a digitally displayed hours indicator at the end of the analog minutes hand. This type of timepiece became known as a digital/analog timepiece. With this arrangement, a single hour numeral is indicated by the display for one complete revolution of the minutes hand, on which the display is mounted. Only after sixty minutes elapsed would the hours digit be sequentially incremented by the display.
Although these digital/analog timepieces proved to be interesting for those trying to read the time, they are not without their practical problems. In particular, the mechanism used to indicate the passage of hours in a digital format is fairly complex (if done mechanically) and although it may be mounted to the minutes hand of a clock without much difficultly, it could not be introduced very easily to the minutes hand of a watch. Also, the hours digit of the digital/analog timepiece must be read to determine the time whereas the passage of time shown by an all-analog timepiece may be determined simply by viewing the relative positions of the minutes and hours hand with a standard reference position (usually the "twelve" numeral). As a result, time may be determined more quickly using an all-analog timepiece than one in which either minutes, hours, or both must be read from a digital display.
An object of the present invention is to provide a timepiece for measuring elapsed time in an artistic, interesting and aesthetically pleasing manner.
Another object of the invention is to provide an interesting timepiece wherein both minutes and hours are quickly and easily determined using a single analog hand.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds