A solid state watch includes two gravity switches, one closable when the arm is positioned such that the wrist extends substantially horizontally and the other simultaneously actuatable when the arm and/or wrist is twisted or rotated sidwardly while the wrist is maintained in its horizontal position, such that both switches one in sequence circuit with the other are subject to being concurrently thereby closed at a same period in time, during which the completed closed circuit of the circuitry to a solid state read-out assembly is activated thereby making possible the observing and reading of the time by the person reading the watch without any requirement of use of the other hand, the particular readout being dependent upon the duration of period of closing of the switch closing upon the twisting of the wrist and/or upon a predetermined number of sequential to and fro twists of the wrist.
In electronic wrist watches in which figures for the time are displayed by light emitting diodes, and in watches with liquid crystal displays where the display is illuminated by a light emitting diode, it is necessary to have the diodes normally unenergized in order to conserve battery power. A switch must be closed to energize the diodes when the display of time is desired. Since the hand of the wrist on which the watch is worn cannot reach the switch, it is necessary for the wearer of the watch to use his other hand to operate the switch and thus both hands are effectively involved in order to tell the time. This invention provides the watch with an acceleration-responsive switch that permits display of the time by a quick movement of the wrist and without involving any manual operation.
A wristwatch includes the conventional time display and an additional preprogrammed message display which is activated unpredictably on some, but not all of the occasions when the wearer's arm is raised to check the time. The probability of occurrence of a message display is adjustable.
A pushbutton device comprises a pipe or tubular member for being affixed to a casing as of an electronic watch, a pushbutton body axially movably disposed in the pipe, resilient structure for returning the pushbutton body to an original position, structure for retaining the pushbutton body in the pipe, and a plurality of contacts selectively actuatable by the pushbutton body into and out of mutual electrical contact. Either the pushbutton body or the pipe has at least one step on its upper surface remote from the contacts to provide a plurality of stepped strokes of depressed movement of the pushbutton body with respect to the pipe for selective actuation of the contacts. The resilient structure may be a coil spring or a resilient leaf spring.
